


sweet somethings

by galpalaven



Series: Buzzfeed Unsolved AU [4]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Inktober 2018, Making Out, Modern AU, Muriel is there sometimes, One Shot Collection, Spooky, buzzfeed unsolved au, i guess we're nanowrimo-ing in october, so is Portia, these are literally just a bunch of fairly lengthy one shots idk what happened, this is high key my greatest accomplishment tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-25 07:57:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 54,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16193345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galpalaven/pseuds/galpalaven
Summary: A collection of Nox/Julian Buzzfeed Unsolved AU fictober prompt fills, mostlyfully fleshed out one-shots, using a Buzzfeed Unsolved Inktober list I found from last year. Length of each day varies, but is generally never under 600 words.We did it, guys. We did it. 31 fics, 50k words, 1 month. Thanks for all your support andplease enjoy~





	1. Vampire

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title: Nyatober 2018 :3c
> 
> i dID it
> 
> also, for those curious, the list is **[here](http://galpalaven.tumblr.com/post/178646020233/cctinsley-hey-guys-i-thought-it-would-be-fun-to)** (as is my tumblr!)

“Vampires aren’t real,” Nox begins dryly, “so let’s just get that out of the way right now.”

“Is _that_ why you’re dressed up like Van Helsing with a wooden stake in your belt loop?” Julian asks, smirking.

She shrugs, straightening her coat collar and crossing her legs to give off the right air of superiority. It’s cold out, even inside the mansion, and she usually doesn’t appreciate when they film at night in cold places, but she can make an exception for the fun of wearing a nice costume while they run around a giant, abandoned Victorian manor.

All in the spirit of Halloween, of course.

“I figured we could at least match for this one,” she says, dragging her gaze playfully down his torso, admiring the thread work around the cuffs and on the lapels. There’s more intricate thread work on the coattails that she’d complimented earlier, and she still distantly wonders how much money he spent on this outfit. “Would’ve been too weird to have you running around with fangs and a cape while I’m in a t-shirt and jeans.”

He makes a face at that, nodding to himself before he turns his attention back to his phone.

Nox, admittedly, zones out a little while he reads the history of the manor off for the camera. The timber of his voice stokes something soothing and warm in her chest, and she can get away with only barely processing the words he says because she’d been the one to suggest this place in the first place.

Allegedly, a hundred some odd years ago, this place had been the site of a bloodbath _—_ an entire family plus their numerous servants slaughtered over the course of several months, picking up severity and speed during the month of October. The bodies were found with their throats mutilated, as though something with large teeth had torn them out. Wolves had been blamed, but there was no evidence of an animal attack beyond the throat _—_ nothing had been torn away, no claw marks were found. It was a mystery that stumped the entire town surrounding the manor.

And, as all good horror stories do, it ended on Halloween Night, when a private investigator decided he’d stay in the manor and investigate the entire night through, and was never heard from again.

Only the head butler’s son, a young man barely out of his teens who went on to be a very successful novelist until he died of old age, had survived the ordeal. He’d been found cowering in the wine cellar, behind some kegs.

He is also, to this day, by and large everyone’s favorite suspect.

But that isn’t what they’re here to investigate.

Sure, the spirits of those murdered are said to roam the grounds still. Nox can feel things shifting just on the edges of her magic _—_ curious spirits, sad and lonely, but not malevolent in the slightest. The only thing dark on this property is the aura left behind after a tragedy of that magnitude. The earth is soaked in pain and loss, but that’s it.

There’s definitely nothing that she can see to back up the claims of people being chased by a vicious, pale, undead humanoid creature with fangs and claws the size of its forearms.

“You don’t… have any thoughts to share?” Julian’s voice breaks through her daze, and she blinks as she returns her full attention to him. “No snarky comments?”

She smiles a little. “I think it’s an urban legend run wild, if I’m being honest, but we’ll see what the night holds in store for us, won’t we?”

He lets out a quiet, shaky sigh.

“That we will. Let’s get this over with.”

 

* * *

 

Investigating the grounds themselves proves actually rather good for ghost hunting. Nox isn’t sure how much of it is caught on camera, but a fair few spirits do come in for a closer look at the three of them and their weird equipment. A playful spirit, the youngest daughter of the man who’d owned the estate, gives Julian a good fright at one point by tugging on his coat in the middle of a spirit box session.

He spends the rest of their filming time nearly pressed to her side after that, jumpy and tense, eyes darting around the shadows like he’s expecting something to come barreling out of them.

It’s midnight when they send Muriel home for the night, back to the hotel they’d stayed at while they try to tough it out in a couple of the bedrooms. When it’s just the two of them getting changed for the night, Nox lets the professional, entertaining mask fall away, sidling up to him as he changes into something more comfortable for the night in front of the fireplace in the room she picked.

She slides her arms around his waist when she’s close enough, pressing a kiss between his shoulder blades and sighing when a tiny bit of tension seeps from his frame.

“Ilya,” she murmurs softly. The cameras are off completely now, and she can be as soft as she wants. “We don’t have to do this. We’ll get just as much stuff from sleeping together as we will apart.”

He huffs, but lets her keep holding him as he talks. “Maybe, but…”

Julian doesn’t finish his sentence, so she peeks around the side of his arm to look up at him curiously as she asks, “But?”

“But I hate feeling like I’m too much of a scaredy cat to sleep in my own bed, even if the place _is_ haunted.” He reaches up and rubs roughly at his eyes, sighing again. “Besides, doesn’t it _—_ I don’t know, _bother_ you that your boyfriend is afraid of his own shadow sometimes?”

Nox snorts, shaking her head and burying her face in the back of his shirt. “The only thing that bothers me is when you won’t let me help.”

He’s quiet, and she sighs, slipping around in front of him and pressing up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to the base of his throat (or, as close as she can get to it). He leans into her, wrapping his arms around her and letting her lips brush against his throat as he pulls her close. Julian buries his face in her shoulder after a moment, and they start to sway on the spot as he rubs at her back.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles.

Taking advantage of the moment without cameras, in what would normally be a _very_ romantic location minus the haunting and bloody past, Nox trails her kisses up his neck and down his jaw until her lips find his. They kiss each other for a minute, soft and slow, until Julian groans into her mouth.

“You’re manipulating me.”

She smiles, brushing the tip of her nose against his. “Is it working?”

Julian grins against her lips. “A little bit.”

“Only a little?”

He hums as he kisses her one more time, before untangling himself with a sigh. “Yeah. I’m still gonna sleep in the other room.”

“But _Ilyaaa_ ,” she whines, pulling on his shirt. “It’s cold on the other side of the mansion. The fire made this room all warm, and your beautiful, wonderful, extremely smart and talented girlfriend is here.” He lets her reel him back in, smiling to himself as she adds, “Come on. You know both of our favorite parts of these nights is cuddling.”

He hums, shaking his head. “Doesn’t make for very good entertainment, though. We both know everyone watches to see me freak out.”

Nox rolls her eyes, but lets him go when he tries to pull away again. She sinks onto the little couch in front of the fireplace as he gathers his things, reaching for her phone to procrastinate setting up the camera. She didn’t mind sleeping with the camera on so much, as she was pretty sure it was a good way to catch things, but it does lead to restless sleep sometimes.

The feeling of being watched that she usually feels in these places just amplifies with the camera, and…

“Did you hear that?”

“Hmm?”

She turns to look at Julian, only to find him with his finger held to his lips, eyes glued to the door to the hallway. She listens for a moment, but the only thing she can hear is the sound of the fire crackling.

“What did you hear?” she asks softly, turning her attention back to her boyfriend, who has started to look a little queasy.

“It was like… scratching?”

“An animal, maybe?”

He shakes his head, eyes still on the door even as he relaxes a little as the minutes pass in relative silence. Eventually, he blinks, and turns back to packing his things. “I’m already getting jumpy,” he tries to laugh, but his voice is tight with apprehension. “At least we’ll probably get some good footage of me sprinting back here later, huh?”

“Ilya, if you’re that uncomfortable _—_ ”

“It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”

“ _Baby_ ,” she presses, turning around fully to sit on her knees on the couch. She reaches for him, tugging on his sleeve where she can reach it. “Nobody will know you planned to sleep elsewhere. This room is the one with all the activity. We can edit to make it seem like this was the plan all along.”

He lets her grab at his wrist, drifting a little closer as she pulls his hand to her lips and kisses his knuckles. She squeezes his hand and smiles sweetly as she murmurs, “Stay with me.”

Julian lets out a quiet breath, obviously debating in his head whether he wanted to still try for the other room as he reaches out with his free hand and brushes his fingers against her cheek, gentle and sweet. After a beat, he steps closer, bends his head to catch her lips with his in a kiss. She reaches up and runs her hand through his hair as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, letting a soft, contented sigh slip just to encourage him a little more.

They kiss for a calm moment before he says, “Fine. You’ve convinced me, you minx.”

She laughs delightedly, leaning after him as he pulls away again. “I knew you’d see it my way eventually.”

 

* * *

 

It’s a little disappointing, Nox thinks as they finally settle down for the night, that the stupid camera is there, just on the other side of the couch. This place really is beautiful, and the sheets are so, so soft that a part of her wants so badly to take advantage. Yes, the place is haunted, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t enjoy themselves anyway, right? It’s not disrespectful to enjoy being alive, is it?

But, she knows that even if the camera weren’t there, he wouldn’t be comfortable enough to let her kiss him like she wants, especially judging by the way he’s lying next to her now, flat on his back, with his hands clasped tight on top of his stomach. It’s too dark to make out his face, but she can tell he’s staring at the ceiling and trying not to panic.

Nox really does love their job, but she hates to see him so worked up.

She turns on her side after a moment, reaching out to touch his arm and pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

“You’re okay,” she breathes, and he lets out a shaky, high-pitched laugh in return. She slides a little closer under the blankets, resting her hand over his pounding heart. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you, don’t you?”

“I know,” he says thickly, “and yet I’m still fucking terrified.”

“They’re not going to hurt you,” she reminds him. She can still feel a few spirits wandering the halls, but her wards she’d laid at the door keep them from wandering in.

(Not that she was trying to sabotage the filming, but a lot of people _had_ died, and she had felt something a bit darker lurking in the woods while they were investigating, and she’d rather be safe and boring than put Ilya at risk.)

“It _—_ it still bothers me.”

“I know, baby.”

“What leaves marks like that? Tears the throat out and leaves the rest of the body?”

“...do you want a real answer or my public opinion?”

“When you put it that way, I want neither.”

“Vampires are not usually so messy in their kills. It’s very clean and methodical if they _do_ kill. But they don’t kill often, or at all in many cases. They have other means of feeding themselves, from animal blood to blood banks. They also don’t look like the way people have described the beast that lives here, either.”

He’s quiet for a moment, before he asks, “What does the creature here look like?”

Nox shrugs, and tries to ignore the gnawing sense of unease growing in the back of her mind. Something else _is_ on the grounds, but…

“I don’t know. Something else entirely, probably. Something older. Different.”

Julian’s breathing hitches, and one of his hands lands over hers on his heart. “Doesn’t that scare you?”

_Yes._

“Well, it hasn’t actually managed to hurt anyone more than a few scrapes and bruises. I doubt it’s dangerous enough to do any real harm.” She shakes her head, sighing lightly. “I’m not as versed in magical creatures as I should be, probably, so I don’t really know what it is.”

“Didn’t you study magic? You have a license to practice, don’t you?”

She snorts. “Believe it or not, it wasn’t exactly something I could major in. There are a lot of secrets that I’m definitely not allowed to know.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why don’t they just make that knowledge available to the public?”

She giggles, shaking her head again. “I don’t know. Why won’t the government tell us aliens are real?”

She looks up to find him opening his mouth, before he snaps it shut again. “Okay, that’s fair.”

Nox settles a little deeper into the bed, pressed up against his side, yawning in the dark. “Don’t worry about it. Just try to sleep.”

He takes a deep, slow breath to try and calm his nerves, relaxing a little more beside her as she holds him. She can feel him starting to drift, and that makes her start to relax, when the darkness prowling on the edge of her consciousness decides it’s time to fuck with them.

It starts with stomping footsteps above them, that makes Julian jump beside her, all tension and nerves. She squeezes his hand in an attempt to comfort, but that falls flat when the sound immediately changes to what she can only describe as someone dragging something heavy across the floor. It stops nearly right above their heads, and she knows that physically it should be impossible for them to hear voices on the next floor up in this particular house, but _—_

“Is that _growling_?” Julian hisses, both of their eyes glued to the ceiling.

It does, indeed, sound like growling.

If not that, then someone with a very deep, gravelly voice speaking in tongues.

Either way, not a great sound. 0/10.

Nox starts to sit up after another moment of this, trying to make out any words while running a mental check of her wards, making sure she’d covered all entrances well, that they were as strong as they could be. Whatever is making that noise doesn’t feel friendly, and she doesn’t care about getting evidence for their show that badly. Julian’s hand clutches at the back of her shirt when the sound abruptly stops, and they both wait with baited breath until _—_

Until whatever it is starts sprinting on the upper floor, a sound _so_ unnerving that Julian half falls out of bed, pressing himself into the corner while Nox springs into action, stumbling over to her sketch pad to tear an extra ward from the book and press it to the door. The sound of running gets closer as the ward glows a comforting blue, the paper disintegrating so that the rune sinks into the wood.

Nox hesitates a beat, planning to hold the door shut if she has to, but Julian’s voice snaps her out of it as he calls her name, and he yanks her away from the door just as something slams into the other side of it. They stumble backwards together, and though Julian’s entire body is shaking, he doesn’t let go of her, hugging her to his chest to keep her from moving back towards the door.

Whatever is on the other side of the door knocks a few times, more lightly, like it’s testing for weaknesses, and Nox clutches at Julian’s hip, making sure he stays behind her. She doesn’t know what that is, but she does know that she’s not going down without a fight.

Julian drags her backwards another step or two when the banging gets louder, so hard the door rattles with it, and then the growling returns as it sounds like the creature drags a set of claws down the outside of the door. Nox tries to think of something else she can do if it breaks the door down, and she suddenly remembers _—_

“Didn’t the groundskeeper say it didn’t like light?” she breathes.

“I think so?”

That’s all the confirmation she needs, reaching out her hand and snapping to set the fireplace ablaze again. For some reason, she just had a feeling their equipment wouldn’t be working _—_ not the lights, and not the cameras, and not their phones _—_ but at least the fireplace was there.

The effect is instantaneous, as the light floods the room the oppressive energy is pushed back, and her eyes are immediately drawn to the couple of long, white fingers that had been poking under the door that get withdrawn the second the firelight touches it.

Nox and Julian don’t move for a long moment, listening to the huffing sounds on the other side of the door for what feels like hours, until whatever it is gets bored and leaves.

 

* * *

 

Needless to say, they didn’t get any sleep, and since the camera cut out right when the noises started really happening, they had to film a different ending for the episode, which basically ended up being that Julian got ‘too spooked to sleep,’ so they stayed up until dawn, and left immediately after sunrise.

As they’re leaving, hand in hand, Nox and Julian both turn to take one last glance at the mansion and, in the highest window, Nox could swear she can make out a figure watching them leave.

Turning briskly forward again, Nox all but drags Julian the rest of the way to the car, shoving him in the uber and following after him.

Once they are safely on their way back to town, Nox fixes her boyfriend with a very serious look and says, “We are not doing _any_ more cases like this one.”

He laughs, slumping against the door, and nods his agreement.

“Thank god. I couldn’t agree more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this monster of a one shot brought to you by Nox and Julian, my personal brain gremlins who don't know what "short and sweet" means


	2. Haunted

It isn’t the first time Portia had invited them to be on the Halloween Special of her podcast, but this is the first time they’ve said _yes_.

Usually they’re too busy with their own filming leading up to Halloween night, but this year they filmed both of the last two episodes of the season early, so they’ve essentially got a two week break aside from filming Post Mortem episodes. Which meant that, even though Julian seemed hesitant, when Portia asked this time, there was no reason _not_ to, really.

Nox remembers very vividly what she’d said when Julian said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be on the spooky episode, which was:

_What’s the worst that could happen?_

The look on Julian’s face now, as Portia has just finished explaining that she’s gotten them a spooky gift in the name of Halloween, says very clearly, _This is the worst that could happen and I’m blaming you_.

He just frowns a little harder as Nox has to lean away from her microphone as she laughs, eyeing the camera as Portia just grins mischievously at her brother.

“I’m going to be honest,” Julian says at length, voice tight with unease. “I don’t like that look on your face, Pasha. It reminds me of the way you used to look when you were planning to scare me half to death when we were kids.”

Portia just laughs, waving a hand at him nonchalantly as she says, “Relax. I just thought I’d get you guys an extra little anniversary gift, you know? Something to go in your apartment that you can look at and think about how much I love you both.”

Julian presses his lips together in a thin line, and says nothing, instead turning to give Nox a very pointed look that has her dissolving into laughter all over again. Nox has no idea what this is about, but if she knows Portia at all, this is bound to be very funny and most likely something Julian is going to hate.

“Close your eyes,” Portia says after a beat.

“No,” Julian protests immediately. “You’re going to drop a spider down the back of my shirt or something.”

“Am not! Come on, Ilya, that’s so _juvenile_. I am a serious entertainer, now. Both of you, close your eyes!”

Julian doesn’t look convinced in the slightest and, feeling a little bad for him, Nox smiles as she asks, “Can you at least give us a hint?”

Portia hums thoughtfully, looking off into the distance and tapping her finger against her chin. “Well… do you guys like _My Brother, My Brother, and Me_?”

“...yeah? Wh—?”

“You _didn’t_.”

“What?”

Julian is full on glaring at Portia now, whose smile has widened into a Cheshire-like smirk by now. “You did, didn’t you? You bought us a—ohh, I hate you.”

Nox still hasn’t managed to put two and two together, looking curiously at Julian, who just stares back for a moment. She’s still trying to piece it together, when Portia reaches under the table, and it suddenly clicks.

“Ohh, Pasha, we’re not doing—”

“— _Haunted Doll Watch_!” she announces gleefully, setting a package on the table in front of her.

“Oh my god.”

“Pasha, I _swear_ —”

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud, Ilyushka! Just close your eyes!”

Julian groans loudly and crosses his arms on the table, dropping his head and burying his face in his sleeve with a huff. Nox snorts, nudging her leg against his under the table as she covers her face with her hands, at least sort of curious to see what sort of monstrosity Portia has decided to inflict upon them.

Nox can’t quite hold back her giggles as the sound of the box being torn open fills the room.

“Okay, no peeking.” She snorts, giggling as she rustles through the package. “Don’t look, don’t look, don’t— _snrrk_ —don’t look!”

Julian leans a little closer to Nox as they wait, and she giggles into her hands at the tension she can feel radiating from him.

“Okay,” Portia says after the rustling has stopped. “His name is Brad—”

“ _Brad?_ You bought a haunted doll named _Brad_??”

“Yes, Ilya, hush. Now, one more second, lemme just—okay, you can look now.”

Nox and Julian both lift their heads at the same time, to look straight into the face of literally just a Ken doll with it’s face melted off. Nox immediately starts cackling, tossing her head back in mirth, but Julian just shifts uncomfortably, eyeing the barbie doll warily. He actually, physically moves his chair away from the table when Nox reaches for the doll, which makes both girls just laugh more.

There’s absolutely nothing haunted about this doll, and Nox is pretty sure Portia knows that, but Julian’s still unnerved anyway.

“What’s Brad’s story?” Nox asks once she’s got her giggles under control a little bit.

“Oh, you know, the typical _person dies with the doll in the room and the doll becomes possessed.”_

“Incredible. What did Brad die of?”

“Spontaneous human combustion—though, the rumor is that it was actually a murder.”

“Ohh, a murder, huh. That’s fantastic. Julian, do you wanna hold him?” Nox asks, offering the doll to her boyfriend, only to collapse into giggles when he scoots his chair back another foot.

“You’re being awful quiet, Ilya,” Portia giggles. “What do you think of your present?"

He blinks, glances between his girlfriend and his sister and that hideous doll, and says, “I think we’re not keeping that in our apartment.”

“ _I_ _lya_ , this is a _gift_!”

“It’s trash is what it is.”

Portia laughs, nodding, as she says, “That’s fair, but Adore has already threatened to kick me out over this, so you’ll have to throw it out on your way home. If you wanna be cursed, that is.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you, too, Ilyushka.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun AU Fact: Pasha runs a very, very successful YouTube channel and podcast, which was spurred further into stardom by Nox and Julian's success at Buzzfeed.


	3. Fly

“Happy anniversary.”

When Nox looks up at him from her desktop, an eyebrow raised suspiciously as he drops an envelope on her desk, he has to bite back the urge to laugh. She eyes him warily, gaze lingering on where he has his arms folded behind his back, and he winks at her when her eyes come back to his as he sits in his desk chair beside her.

“Ilya, it’s July.”

“Yes.”

“Our anniversary is in September.”

“Yes, I know.”

She snorts, propping her cheek up with her hand as she asks, “Are you sure you know? Because I don’t think you do.”

He shakes his head, grinning, excited butterflies dancing in his gut as he nods towards the paper. “Will you just open your present? You’ll see why I had to give it to you early when you open it. I swear.”

She sniffs, sighing as she reaches for the envelope and tearing into it. “If you say so.”

Julian bounces his legs a little, watching for her reaction as she tries to process what she’s holding. Nox glances up at him after a beat, flipping the present over as she asks, “What—are these plane tickets? For—oh my god.”

He beams, leaning forward in his seat. “Do you like it?”

“I—Ilya, you got us—you got us _tickets to Paris_ for our anniversary?” She laughs, the sound bright and delighted. “You got me a trip to _Paris_ , I—of _course_ , I like it! Oh my _god_ , I _love it_!”

Nox rises from her seat to cross the distance between them, pressing a kiss to his grinning lips before she pulls away again to read more closely. She sits heavily again, grinning from ear to ear. “You got us a _week_ in Paris! How did you—what—how?”

“I pulled some strings,” he says with a shrug. “Your dad agreed to let us stay in his apartment so long as we didn’t touch his bed.”

She laughs, shaking her head as she hugs the tickets to her chest and looks up at him again, eyes shining with delight. Her joy is infectious, and he can’t quite stop smiling, so unbelievably happy that she isn’t upset. He knows Nox pretty well, but when he’d brought up the idea to one of their coworkers, they’d been convinced it would scare her off.

He’s glad he didn’t listen.

“This’ll be our first trip,” she says quietly, looking back down at the tickets.

He tilts his head. “We go on lots of trips together.”

Nox shakes her head again. “Not like this. Not just the two of us in one of the most romantic cities in the world.” She laughs a little, adding, “God, how am I supposed to live up to this? Anything I was going to get you won’t live up to _this_.”

Julian snorts, scooting his chair closer so he can lean in and kiss her. She kisses him back softly, reaching up to touch his cheek with gentle fingers. Sighing, he mumbles, “Nox, the greatest gift you can ever give me is just _being_ here. You’re giving me more than I could ever ask for by letting me be with you.”

“That’s sweet, but I am going to kick my own ass trying to think of a good present for you anyway. This is so above and beyond anything I was expecting—I _have_ to reciprocate.”

He just laughs, nodding.

“I mean, I’m certainly not gonna stop you.”

“Good. I’m going to spoil you as much as you’re spoiling me.”

He hums, leaning in to kiss her again. “I can’t wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the follow-up for this fic is chapter 13 >:3c


	4. Hellhound

“So,” Julian begins, settling a little further into his seat and reading off of his phone, “this—particular ‘haunted church’ isn’t only home to spirits and a possible demon after it was discovered that some locals were performing Satanic rituals—”

“—as one does at an abandoned church,” Nox says airily, which makes Julian snort.

“Of course. Anyway, this place is also home to a church grim, which is a type of hellhound. Hellhounds are mythological creatures stretching as far back as the Ancient Greeks, and some form of ‘spectral black dog’ exists in a large chunk of cultures, from Scandinavia to England to the hills of Appalachia. They also have a range of different meanings if you encounter one—for some, it’s an omen of death. For others, they are guardians to help guide travelers and lost souls through the dark.

Church grims are guardians, usually ‘created’ by burying the corpse of a dog as the first body in a cemetery. The ghost dog then is supposed to protect the site from evil spirits and dark energy.”

Nox turns to look out of the window at the cemetery, darkened now as dusk settles over the land. The silhouettes of the trees just beyond the cemetery shift a little in the growing darkness, looking less like trees and more like something prowling just beyond the treeline.

“I guess this one couldn’t do anything about some idiots opening a portal inside of its territory, huh?” she asks lightly, turning her attention back to Julian.

He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, nodding. “I guess so.” His eyes linger on the window over her shoulder as well as he adds, “You know, I know I’m a dog person at heart, and that this kind of hellhound isn’t actually bad, _but_ …”

“You’ll still probably have a heart attack if we see it tonight?”

“Yes.”

Nox hums softly. “You know, I’ve always found it interesting how different cultures assigned different animals to roles like _guardian of the afterlife_ and _guide to lost souls_. The Vikings and northern cultures, who had access to wolves that they domesticated, obviously chose hulking black dogs, but cultures like Egypt assigned that role to cats instead.”

Julian grins at her, crossing his arms as he asks, “Which one would you rather be the truth?”

She laughs. “As someone who owns a little black cat who I’m pretty sure definitely can see things I can’t, I think I’d have to go with the cats. I’ve never really seen dogs stare at a corner with the kind of intensity Kala has before.”

They fall into a little more banter for the camera for a few minutes after that, falling quiet the moment Julian says ‘cut’ to pack up their things and get ready for the night. As they’re checking equipment batteries and whether things work or not, Muriel’s deep, thunderous voice makes Julian yelp when he speaks.

“My dog used to stare at corners all the time before we moved to the city.”

Julian, clutching at his chest, lets out a relieved sigh as he asks, “Is that so?”

Nox has to back up a few paces to be able to look both men in the face, as short as she is and as tall as they are, and when she looks up at Muriel, she finds his face—exactly as it always is. Tired, and mostly neutral, as he nods a few times.

“She used to growl at the windows at night.”

“That’s unnerving,” Nox comments, drawing his gaze.

His lips twitch, and he nods again. “It’s why I don’t like to leave windows uncovered after dark, I think. It always gave me a… very bad feeling, whenever she did that.”

“I’ll say,” Julian snorts, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “That’s downright terrifying. I’m lucky my old hound dog was just too lazy to be concerned with anything beyond sleeping and eating.”

“I dunno,” Nox starts thoughtfully, pulling her own backpack on. “I mean, with Muriel’s dog, at least he had a warning. I think I’d rather be warned than accidentally look a demon in the face, you know?”

“Well… when you put it _that_ way...”

“I’m sure there was just nothing for her to worry about,” Nox says, trying to calm the anxiety she can she rising in Julian’s eyes. “Brundle wouldn’t have let you get hurt, even if she was lazy and uninterested in pretty much everything.”

He scratches at his nose, making a face. “Yeah, that’s true. She was such a good dog.”

Her boyfriend’s face falls a little more, and she can hear the _I miss her_ from all the way over here as she changes the subject abruptly. She hadn’t meant to make him sad—that surely wasn’t going to be good for his morale as the night goes on. Walking over to him, she grabs at his hand, pulling it to her lips and pressing a kiss to the back of it.

“You ready to do some ghost hunting?”

He snorts, shaking his head. “Am I ever ready?”

Nox just laughs and drifts away from him again, letting her grip on his hand linger until she’s pulled too far away to keep holding it anymore.

Time to get to work.

 

* * *

 

When they leave later that night, Muriel pulls her aside as Julian is loading the car. She blinks up at him curiously, because they’re not really the best of friends, and she can’t actually remember a time he wanted to talk to just her.

“What’s up?” she asks quietly, eyeing Julian’s back where she can still see him.

Muriel just raises a finger to his lips, and then reaches forward to grab her shoulders and turn her the same direction he's facing. She’s not sure what’s happening for a moment, even as he murmurs a quiet, “ _Look_ ,” into her ear, until her eyes adjust to the darkness and she realizes what she’s looking at.

In the archway leading into the churchyard, there’s a hulking black mass of fur, easily up to her waist, if not taller. A pair of unblinking red eyes meet hers, and it sends a shiver up her spine.

“I didn’t want to say anything to him,” Muriel says softly. “It’s been following us all night.”

Nox takes a shaky breath, eyes still fixed on the creature. It doesn’t feel angry, or even annoyed. If anything, she’d say it feels curious.

“Well,” she starts, “that would explain the ‘bad dog’ spirit box voice we got, huh?”

The dog shifts its weight then, and both she and Muriel bristle at the sight.

“Let’s—get out of here. I feel like we’re about to overstay our welcome,” Nox says hesitantly, finally managing to look away and start moving back to the car. She can still feel its eyes on her, even as she steps back into the halo of light around the car.

Muriel joins her after a moment, and they both help finish loading the car before Muriel climbs into the driver’s seat, and Nox and Julian slide into the back. Nox sits nearest the window facing the church and immediately strikes up conversation to keep Julian from looking. She’s not sure if the dog will still be visible, or if Julian can even see it, but she doesn’t want him to—

“Uhh, Nox? Do you see—?”

Julian doesn’t finish his sentence, hand half raised to point through the back window, only for the car to pull into the treeline, obscuring the view of the church.

“Do I see what, love?” she asks lightly.

“I… it was…” he shakes his head, gaze lingering on the window before he turns forward again. “Nothing. Probably just—a deer or something.”

She just hums, not wanting to confirm or deny, not wanting to feed his paranoia that’s likely to have hold of him the rest of the night. She slides a little closer to him in the back seat, threading her fingers through his as she rests her head on his shoulder. The hotel they’re staying at is calling her name, and as the tension slowly starts to ebb from Julian’s frame, she thinks maybe a nice bath in that big-enough-for-both-of-us-oh-my-gOD bathtub would be just the thing he needed for a good night’s sleep.

And if that doesn’t work, well…

At least they have each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more spooks featuring Muriel the Camera Guy, who is trying his best to make friends (even though Nox and Julian are both dramatic-ass water signs and his poor Virgo heart can't take them in large doses)


	5. Season

They’re cooking something to bring to Portia’s for Thanksgiving, swaying to the sound of the radio quietly playing from the kitchen table, when he disappears for a few minutes, mumbling something about having a surprise for her and pecking her on the cheek, squeezing her hips as he goes. Nox wonders idly what it could be, considering her birthday had been a few days ago and he hadn’t mentioned anything extra.

Of course, speaking of  _extra_ , Portia did say they were going to be having cake for her specifically with the holiday dinner, especially since it was her first year celebrating all of these holidays with their family.

 _“You’ve honestly_ been _a part of our family for years now,”_ Portia had said when their friends had taken her out for dinner earlier that week. “ _It’s the least we can do_. _Plus, Mazelinka insisted on baking it herself, so..._ ”

She had been celebrating birthdays and other holidays with the Devoraks for years now, it’s true, but she’s still never met their grandmothers, or any of their extended family. And this year they were supposed to be flying to Nevivon for Hanukkah _and_ the New Year, which was sure to be a whole other trial she’s not sure she’s ready for. She and Julian have been together more than a year now, but she’s still worried about him feeling like they’re moving _too fast_ —or not fast enough.

She’s moving the macaroni off the burner when the sound of Julian clearing his throat makes her turn curiously...

And she laughs at what she finds.

“You got me a Hanukkah sweater!”

He beams at her, holding it up in front of him so she can see the design on the front. She turns the stove off before she walks to him, tangling her fingers in the rich blue fabric and sighing at the softness. It’s thick and well-made, and she’s sure this will keep her much warmer than anything she has in her closet to take with them in a few weeks.

Especially since she’s gathered that Nevivon is _cold_.

Or, at least, colder than 50 degrees in December, which is pretty cold for her  _built for the beach on or near the equator_ self.

“Happy birthday,” he says sweetly, leaning in to press a kiss to the top of her head. “Now we can match _and_ you can stop _stealing_ _mine_. _”_

Nox laughs as she starts to shrug her flannel button up off to try it on. “You know the only reason I steal yours is because I love you, right? Wearing your clothes is like having you close to me even when you’re not.”

He snorts. “Yeah, and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Mrs. Rutherford from next door suggested that I was abusing you by not ‘letting’ you celebrate Christmas,” he says, using air quotes as Nox pulls the sweater over her head. “You’re definitely not wearing them like a month early just to remind her that we aren’t Christian.”

“ _Hey_ ,” she starts, voice a little muffled as she struggles to pull the turtleneck on, “that terrible old hag _deserves_ to feel like she’s losing the ‘ _war on Christmas_ ’.”

Julian laughs, reaching for her and helping her get her head and arms in the right places as he nods and says, “She does, but now you can look the part properly _and_ we can be _extra_ obnoxious about being a half Jewish household.”

“I still don’t think these will beat the look on her face when you wished her a happy new year in Hebrew on Rosh Hashanah and she asked me if you cursed her.”

He snorts, reaching up to rub at his face. “Should’ve seen her face when I was in the elevator the other day on the phone with Pasha and I switched to Hebrew specifically to make her uncomfortable.” He shakes his head at the memory, before leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “You look good in blue.”

Nox hums contentedly, grinning when Julian takes her by the hands and steps back twirling her once so he can see the shirt better. He reels her back in to the beat of the music, settling one hand on her hip as he leads them into a simple, swaying slow dance. She buries her face in his shirt, inhaling the scent of his cologne as he starts to hum along to the radio.

In this quiet little moment, listening to his voice and his heartbeat and his breathing, she suddenly loves him so much it hurts to breathe a little bit.

“Ilya?”

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

She feels more than hears him laugh, and she tilts her head back to find him grinning that crinkly-nosed grin she loves so much.

“I take it you like your present, then?”

She presses up on her tiptoes in invitation, smiling when he leans down to meet her halfway, kissing her solidly. “I love it. It’s my new favorite sweater.”

He chuckles. “Good.”

As he pulls away to go finish cooking, she slides into one of the chairs at the kitchen table with a quiet sigh. Following the broad line of his shoulders with her eyes, she says after a beat, “You know what else we should do?”

“What?”

“We should get Kala a sweater, too. Just so she doesn’t feel left out.”

Julian’s delighted laughter is all the answer she needs as it fills up the apartment, and she smiles at him when he glances at her over his shoulder. Kala hops up on one of the bar stools just then as well, almost like she can tell that they’re talking about her.

“We’ll have to start looking when we get home this weekend.”

“It’s a date, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nox really, truly, enthusiastically loves everything about her boyfriend, and that includes his religion and culture and the holidays that come with them. She really enjoys celebrating with him wherever she can, participating in all the traditions that she possibly can (without overstepping boundaries), because she loves him.
> 
> also, yes i did just pull Nevivon into the real world to have a place with salt flats for to be julian's hometown because i didnt want to research lmao sue me


	6. Demon

It’s past noon by the time he finally wakes up, a little exhausted from all the walking they’d done the day before. They were going to be in Niagara Falls for a week, and of course that was plenty of time to see the touristy stuff normally, but they were going to be filming in 4 different locations, including staying in one of the haunted hotels, so they’d decided to get their sightseeing out of the way early. Today was supposed to be a day off, to rest and relax, before tomorrow when they were going to be meeting their Canadian contact and apparent ‘psychic medium’.

He inhales slowly as his body wakes, face half buried in his pillow as he pries one eye open.

Nox is sitting up in bed beside him, one earbud in as she taps away at her laptop keyboard. As he watches her fingers move for a minute, a little mesmerized because he’s still drowsy, she pauses to crack not one but 5 of her knuckles.

He sniffs, and then sighs and stretches languidly, shifting under the blankets until his legs find the cool parts of the sheets, shuffling a little closer to press a kiss to the side of her arm. “Mm, good morning,” he mumbles, voice a little rough from sleep.

Julian grins when he sees a shiver run up her spine.

“Morning,” she replies sweetly, smiling down at him. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

“Good!” Nox says, shutting her laptop screen and depositing the computer carefully on the floor beside the bed. She slides down under the covers next to him after that, and his cheeks feel a little warm at the thought that maybe she’ll want to stay in bed all day as she leans in and kisses him. “Good, because I wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date tonight.”

“Mmm,” he hums, kissing her again. “What were you thinking? Dinner, dancing, maybe a ride on the Skywheel to watch the lights on the falls?”

“Actually, I wanna go on a tour.”

“Oh? That sounds like fun. Were you thinking one of the vineyards, or…?”

She rolls over then, reaching for something on the nightstand that she then holds up in front of her face, grinning with her eyes as his cross a little to focus on the brochure.

 _Ghost Tours of Niagara at Fort George_ reads the pamphlet.

His face crumbles, and he slumps into the mattress. “Oh, _Nox_ —”

“It looks like so much fun, _Ilyaaa_ ,” she practically whines. “ _Please_?”

“We’re going to be investigating there tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but I wanna experience it the touristy way first!”

Twisting his mouth in displeasure, he sighs and reaches for the brochure, rolling onto his back to read the advert. Nox curls around him, running a gentle hand up the side of his neck as she leans in and starts to press a line of kisses to his jaw. He’s having a little trouble concentrating by the time she makes it to his ear, her breath hot and humid on his skin as she murmurs, “It’s just a couple hour walking tour. There’s no interacting with anything beyond the tour guide.”

Well, when she puts it like _that_ —

—he can’t hold back the groan that’s pulled from his chest when she starts to nibble lightly on his earlobe.

He tilts his head to give her better access, and she trails her kisses down the side of his throat, shifting until she’s half-lying on top of him. Her teeth sink lightly into his neck as he asks shakily, “Can’t we just stay in bed and make out all day?”

Julian can feel her grin against his skin. “The tour doesn’t start until 8 o’clock tonight. We can do both.” She pulls back to look down at him, smiling softly as she brushes his hair away from his face. “I won’t ask you to do anything like this again, Ilya. I just wanna be a _tourist_ with you for once.”

“We’re tourists everywhere we go, Nox.”

She rolls her eyes, slumping to lay her head on his chest. “Not like this, though. I just—really want to go experience a fun, spooky attraction with you without a bunch of equipment and cameras and shit. Just the two of us and whoever else is on the tour. Like a real couple on a real vacation.”

He can’t argue with that, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

“We _are_ a real couple,” he grumbles, reaching up to run a hand through her hair.

“Yeah, but this isn’t a vacation.”

“...no, it’s not.” Julian sighs, rubbing at his eyes. He’s so whipped, he knows he’s going to say yes anyway, because he wants to do things with her, too, and _who knows_ , it _could_ be really fun, but…

“I’ll go on two conditions,” he says after a beat, and Nox perks up, lifting her head to look at him brightly.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. One—you pay for room service for the rest of the trip.”

“Okay!”

“Two—we spend as much of the day as possible in bed. I want at least one hickey.”

He watches the gold of her eyes turn molten, and her answering smile is full of heat and desire. “You want a hickey on camera?”

“I have scarves and high-collared jackets. It’s cold at night. I want a hickey.”

Nox just chuckles, nodding and pressing a kiss to the underside of his chin. “Your wish is my command…”

She readjusts to bring her mouth to his, when he turns away with a gasp of, “ _Wait!_ Hold on, wait—!”

“Ilya?”

“I need to brush my teeth! And shave!”

His girlfriend snorts, dropping her head to bury her face in his neck as she laughs, staying like that for a beat before she rolls off of him. “Fine. Take your time. You want me to go ahead and order lunch?”

“Please.”

 

* * *

 

When Nox finally kicks him out of bed to shower and change for dinner, he nearly stumbles face first into the dresser, knees weak from her kisses. He’s feeling much better about their plans tonight, feeling a little braver and happier than he normally would after having his girlfriend pin him to the bed and kiss him, slow and soft and deep, for literal hours. As he passes by the mirror on his way to the shower, he catches sight of his neck, and he grins at his reflection.

She’d marked him pretty well, a few dark, maroon blotches on the side of his throat the exact size and shape of her mouth.

Getting ready usually takes them both about the same amount of time, so they don’t rush. Nox’s hair is shorter than his, and she rarely styles it, but she does like to wear makeup—and that takes about the same amount of time it takes him to style his hair, sometimes, depending on how much it wants to cooperate that day.

Nox’s gaze lingers on his neck while they finish getting dressed, and he can tell if she’s wondering if she went too far as he tosses a scarf around his neck, covering them completely.

“You sure you’re not going to get too hot like that?”

He shrugs as she meets his gaze in the reflection of the full length mirror by the dresser. “This is my outfit. It’s incomplete without the scarf. I’ll die of heatstroke if I have to to maintain my Look.”

That makes his girlfriend laugh, gigglesnorting into her hand as he turns around to bend and press a kiss to her forehead. She hums softly, reaching up to touch his hands as he gently cups her face, and asks, “You’re gonna wear all these layers at the restaurant?”

He shakes his head. “No. The _jacket_ isn’t part of the look—just the scarf.”

She just raises an eyebrow at him, and he chuckles.

“If you’re so worried, we can stop at a drugstore somewhere and get some concealer?”

Nox just shakes her head, smirking. “No, it’s fine. It’s not like we’re a secret anymore. I just don’t want you to be _embarrassed_.”

“Why would I be embarrassed about proof that I probably had a better day than anyone else we meet tonight?”

She snorts, and moves for the door, snatching her purse off the dresser as she goes. “Come on, sweet talker. Let’s go before we have to skip dinner.”

“Right behind you, my dear.”

He is still a little apprehensive about tonight, but as she threads her fingers through his as they head for the elevator, he finds that he can’t really bring himself to care _too_ much.

 

* * *

 

It’s a longer drive to the fort than either of them had been expecting, in the end. They make it to where the tour guide is waiting barely a minute before the tour is bound to start, both of them a little tense from cutting it so close.

Nox and Julian aren’t the only ones on the tour, a little group of people already waiting that smile at them as they walk up. There’s a group of men about their age probably, give or take a few years, and several older couples dressed in clothes that definitely suggest they’re on vacation. The tour guide is dressed in a black Halloween cape and carrying an old lantern, and he greets them warmly—and when he introduces himself, Julian realizes that this is the same man they’re meant to be meeting tomorrow for Unsolved.

As they walk up towards the entrance to the fort, the guide regales them on stories of the War of 1812, and what role this town and the fort played in its bloody history.

Julian knows a good deal of this from the research he had to do to write the script for the show, which boils down to more or less that most of the ghosts probably come from the Battle of Fort George, when US forces took control of the fort in May of 1813 and stayed until the fort was retaken in December of that same year and _blah blah blah_. He mentions that, sometimes, the ghosts tend to cause American visitors more problems than locals, a fact that makes Julian groan under his breath.

One of the older couples laughs at him, as Nox’s hand comes up to rub at his back comfortingly.

“Don’t worry,” the wife says, “we’re from New York.”

Nox answers them before he can. “We’re from California.”

“Oh, how lovely. Are you two on vacation together, or…?”

“We’re here for business, but I talked him into coming out to do this tonight. He doesn’t like ghosts,” she stage-whispers, cupping a hand over her mouth to pretend like he’s not supposed to hear her. He rolls his eyes, and she winks up at him. “I’ll owe him at least a few favors for making him do this.”

The tour guide is the one that speaks up then, laughing as he says, “Well, I’ve worked here for 20 years, and I’ve only had a few really terrifying encounters here, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

That's the least reassuring thing Julian thinks anyone has ever said to him.

Dusk has begun to settle in earnest now as the tour guide warns them about creatures that lurk inside the walls of the fort, and to not be alarmed if they see anything unusual…

“...because the skunks are mostly harmless, and you’ll be able to tell if they’re about to spray you,” the tour guide finishes, grinning at Julian specifically, who is pretty sure he probably looks like he’s about to faint. Because he definitely _feels_ a little lightheaded. _Why_ did he let Nox talk him into this again?

Nox’s hand slides into his as they push the gate to the fort open, walking close by his side, free hand wrapped around his forearm to help her keep pace, and he remembers—he let her talk him into this because he loves her.

The fort once they can see inside of it is very flat for the most part, and emptier than he’d been expecting. He’d seen forts in the past, on school trips mostly, and he’d seen the pictures of the compound on the internet, but actually being here makes him feel very small. Insignificant, even.

Or maybe that’s just the growing darkness that makes him feel that way.

The guide stops them outside of the first set of buildings to talk a little about the history and the architecture of the battlements. It’s all very informative and interesting, actually, which surprises him because he’d been expecting something more like telling scary stories around a campfire.

This is a real, actual, historical tour.

...maybe Nox was right about this being fun.

“I want to make it clear to you all that I have been working at the fort for pretty much the entirety of my adult life. I started as an intern when I was about 19, and I haven’t really left since. I am as comfortable here as I hope all of you are in your own homes, which means that there is nothing here that will hurt you—so long as you treat it with respect. The spirits left lingering here are by and large friendly, if a little mischievous. If anything happens to you tonight, the chances are that it will be malicious are very small.”

That's—better.

Still not completely comforting, but better.

It’s still light enough outside that, even with that ‘ _if something happens to you_ ’ jab, he isn’t feeling too bad, when the guide starts in on the ghost stories. He points to a window on the first floor of the very first building, and says that a lot of times, as the tour is ending and they’re headed out, a lot of guests claim to see someone staring out of the window.

“Now,” he says, shifting his weight, “there are lights that stay on in that building at night. The inside is a museum that you can see if you come here during the day, but at night… at night the building takes on a whole new vibe. A darker, more sinister energy. But I have never necessarily been one to believe in _all_ things supernatural, and when guests told me they saw something, I always thought—well, there’s a pillar right inside of that window. That must be what they’re seeing.”

Julian starts to relax a little, assuming that maybe he was about to say ‘ _there’s nothing there'_ , when he continues.

“That’s what I thought—until I was alone in here one night and I saw it. The figure in the window.”

Julian sighs, stomach twisting uncomfortably as he eyes the window warily. There’s nothing there right now, he’s _pretty_ sure, but the daylight is leaving fast, and his eyes are starting to try and play tricks on him again. The blinds he can see through the window seem to shift in the fading light, and he doesn't like that one bit.

“Whatever it is in that building, I have a feeling it really doesn’t like me. It’s not there all the time, of course, but some nights when our tour group is leaving, I can feel something there, and those are the only times I’ve ever been scared here. Those are also usually the only times guests tell me that they saw something there after the tour.”

And the guide leaves that story there, as he moves them all into the barracks with a warning that it _will_ be dark, and to please watch your step. Julian feels anxiety rising in his chest like bile as they step into the darkness, but Nox has his hand firmly in her grasp (she squeezes back comfortingly when his hand tightens as the door closes behind them), so he’s… okay. For now.

But he definitely does  _not_ care for this building. 

At all.

They sit at a row of picnic tables in the next room, a room filled with bunk beds. The guide starts to talk about the history again, and though Julian is very uncomfortable with how dark it is, barely able to see the guide's face even with the lanterns on either side of them, he gets caught up in the story and his guard hesitantly starts to drop. He lets out a slow, shaky breath as he listens to the guide, eyes darting around the room curiously, trying to figure out what sort of furniture they were surrounded with to try and ease the panic that wants to build in his chest.

When he casts a glance towards Nox, he finds her perfectly at ease beside him, almost lounging on the bench, one arm propped up on the table behind her as she crosses her legs and leans into his side. The absolute calm she radiates is infectious, and his breath starts to come a little easier as the minutes go on, even when the guide starts to tell about the ghosts that inhabit the barracks.

There are two, supposedly, in this building. A soldier, and a mischievous little girl who likes to play tag. He absolutely doesn't like that, because his track record with child spirits is that they tend to think it’s funny to scare him. If any of the ghosts here were going to bother him, he has the strongest feeling that it would probably be that one, and his eyes start trying to catalogue the shadows again. Once or twice he thinks he catches a glimpse of something moving in the shadows of the room they'd come from, but it's so dark in there that he can feel it in his gut, so he's almost positive it's his imagination. 

Besides, he thinks. Nox hasn't even so much as glanced back that way since they sat down. If there was anything there for him to be concerned with, she'd probably be looking at it, too.

...right?

Eventually, they finish with the barracks, and the guide leads them back outside and towards the back of fort. He tells a story about a bunch of psychics that came on the tour once, and how a good chunk of them refused to come back this way because of the bad energy.

Then he points out a skunk, poking around one of the outer walls, and Julian can’t decide whether he really likes this guy, or really hates him.

By his side, Nox seems a little more on edge as they walk down into the little valley at the back. She presses a little closer to him as the guide explains what the stone building in front of them was for—weapons, mostly, but that it seemed to have a lingering darkness about it. Then he does another 180 and says that it also used to be a great spot for parties, and that people used to throw wild ones down in this place because the sound didn’t go far, and you were less likely to get busted for noise pollution.

The group of younger men in their tour group, who they found out earlier were locals who just really liked going on this tour, all move forward together to touch the stone walls as the guide moves on.

“Do you want to touch it, too?” Julian asks his girlfriend under his breath, nodding towards it.

Her back is stiff with tension as she shakes her head. “Nah, I’m… good.”

“Are you alright?”

Nox just scratches at her ear and makes a face at him. “Tell you later.”

And, just like that, the unease that had been sort of simmering in the back of his mind starts to boil over.

If _Nox_ is uncomfortable, there’s definitely something up.

“And this,” the tour guide announces as they come around the back of the building, “is what some people like to call the Demon Tunnel.”

“Oh, _wonderful_ ,” Julian actually says out loud, which makes the group around them laugh. He doesn’t know what they think is funny, because he wasn’t telling a joke. He's got a very bad feeling about this, doesn't like it one bit, and if Nox's stiff form beside him means anything, he's  _right_.

The guide explains that this leads to a watchtower that wasn’t actually originally part of the fort, but that is a hotbed of activity for a lot of their tours. There's a warning for the taller people in the group that it might be a little claustrophobic ( _great)_ and that it's not going to be a comfortable fit ( _extra great_ ). He also says that if anyone wants to stay outside, they can wait with his assistant, no questions asked.

Despite the unease twisting in his gut, Julian moves to follow the rest of the tour group immediately as the guide opens the big, heavy door, because he's not about to chicken out in front of his girlfriend _now_ , when Nox tugs on his arm hesitantly.

“You don’t wanna stay outside?”

Julian blinks at her, letting her reel him back in.“...do _you_ wanna stay outside?”

She frowns, and he watches her put on her brave face. “No! I just thought you would want to.”

“I mean, I’m not opposed to staying outside, but… it is part of the tour… so I figured we might as well, you know?”

“Yeah,” she sighs, nodding and moving towards the door. “Yeah, you’re right.”

He doesn’t say anything else, just eyes her warily as they step into the little tunnel, still hand-in-hand. He doesn’t like this at all—at _all_ —because if his brave as hell girlfriend is unnerved, then, again, _something is probably up_. They’re in the back of the tour group this time, and Nox is too short to see the guide anymore, so she just sort of—buries her face in his coat and goes still, arms around his waist. She's tense against him, even as he wraps his arms protectively around her, keeping his eyes firmly on the door at the end of the tunnel, willing the dying sunlight to stay for a little longer. 

The guide tells a few more stories that Julian barely hears through the rushing in his ears, though he gathers that they're mostly about how the little girl from the last building has followed him all the way over here before. Once they saw her at the end of the tunnel, in the doorway (the guide had thought she was someone on the tour, but realized he had everyone and she was extra). One time she even made it all the way to the stairs up into the tower, but something had spooked her away after a minute.

“And it makes you wonder—what does it take to scare a ghost?” the guide asks ominously.

He smiles when he makes eye contact with Julian, who has finally turned back towards the lantern. “Right where the back of the group is standing now is where a lot of people experience a feeling of dread. We’re not sure what lingers right there, but… how are you feeling?”

Oh, he doesn't like this at all.

The couple beside them answers before they can. “Not great.”

The guide laughs, and then starts to push his way through the crowd to lead everyone back out. They’re about halfway back up the tunnel when the guide stops and says, “This is one of my favorite parts of the tour, because the people who have been so diligently following me at the front of the pack get to now be the farthest away from my light. It’s worse when the tour is full, but it’s still not pleasant.”

 _No_ , Julian thinks, suddenly glad for the moment that he and Nox are now right beside the light, because her fingernails have started to dig into his hand. _No, it’s not pleasant._

"Before we leave," the guide says amicably, "I just wanna take a moment to make sure you all really get to experience this tunnel to its fullest extent. Amanda?"

Julian and Nox have just enough time to look each other in the eye before the door to the tunnel slams shut and the lantern goes out.

Ohh, he  _hates it_.

Nox has full on hidden her face in his arm now, where he can feel her, as darkness so black and thick it seems like it's actually vibrating with tension settles around them. He closes his eyes to avoid trying to make out faces in the dark, tightening his arms around his girlfriend and counting in his head to keep from having a total meltdown. They must only stand there in the dark for a minute, but the audible sigh of relief that moves through the group when the door at the end of the tunnel opens again, sending light flooding back into the passage is palpable.

The guide tells a quick story about a woman who’d been in the back of the tour group during this part on their way out once, who had been taking pictures. When she turned as they were leaving to take a few final pictures of the tunnel, she saw a huge, black mass moving towards her, filling up the tunnel like a cloud of smoke.

She apparently then ran out of the tunnel screaming, which Julian thinks is a fair and reasonable reaction.

“I can’t wait until I make myself go in here by myself tomorrow,” Julian mumbles to Nox, who is still pressed close, and she snorts into his coat.

“I think I might fight you a little bit on that.”

He just presses a kiss to the top of her head as they finally move out of the tunnel, back out into the blissfully cool air as a breeze dances through the fort. Nox relaxes the farther away they get from the tunnel, which has Julian relaxing, too.

At least the worst was behind them for the night.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the tour is mostly uneventful.

They get to go inside the officer’s hall, and the guide tells the story of a guide they used to have who was scared of the dark. He was always afraid to go through and turn the lights out after a tour, which Julian thinks is very reasonable given what he's been told tonight, and one night he decided to get an extra big flashlight and face his fears. He was a grown man, dammit, and he could turn off a few lights, right?

That was the exact moment that the ghosts that inhabit the fort decided they needed to mess with him. The moment he turned the lantern off, they killed his flashlight—only for a few seconds, of course, but it was enough that when it came back on, he sprinted out of the place and never, ever volunteered to do the lights again. Which is a funny story, that has Julian's mind racing as he remembers all of the places where something similar had happened to him, from the Sallie House to...

...so many of the places they've been, actually. That was usually at least one of the things they catch on film, come to think of it now.

 _Huh_.

It’s when they’re finally making their way out of the fort that he finally has an _experience_.

And by that, he means he sees The Figure In The Window.

It comes with an overwhelming sense of dread, a sense of heaviness on his chest, and he’s not really sure that he _is_  seeing what he’s seeing, but it’s there. The guide takes no notice of it, or so it seems, and no one around him seems to notice it either, but he finds his hand tightening around his girlfriend’s anyway, even as the figure dissipates when he blinks, as the guide tells one last story about that building.

Apparently, many years ago, there had been an intern that worked at the fort for a summer that had a pretty bad encounter with the thing in that building. He was a science student, who had accidentally been placed with a bunch of history students for the summer program, named Philippe. Philippe, of course, didn’t believe in ghosts or ghouls, always thought the guides and their assistants were the ones pulling the spooks. He got a little offended that no one wanted to let him in on the secret, and on the last night that he was supposed to work there that summer, he hung around after the tour was over, waiting for the person pulling the pranks to appear, and calling for them to show themselves.

“No one ever showed,” the guide explains, “but as he was standing outside of this building, he heard something. The sound of footsteps crunching in the gravel, slowly at first and then faster, until he could _feel_ something barreling towards him. He fell backwards with a shriek, and ran for the gates, and swore he'd never come back.”

Julian's eyes dart between the window and the corner of the building, waiting for something to move, and now his ears are straining for the sound of footsteps on gravel. Distantly, his brain reminds him that they'll be here alone tomorrow, and as an ex-science student himself...

“Whatever lives inside this building…" the guide continues, "Philippe made me swear that, no matter what, I would never take a tour group in there after dark...”

For a heart-stopping minute, Julian almost expects that he’s going to say, _And that’s where we’re going next_ , but all he does is sigh and say, “So that concludes our tour. If you will all please follow me, it’s time to leave.”

He and Nox both heave a sigh at that, as they move for the gate, though they both take their time as they pass the museum building, eyes on the upper level windows as they pass. He wonders what the red lights are for, and if it's as scary inside as it is from the outside.

...he's not looking forward to finding out the answer to that question tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

The relief Julian feels the moment they step outside of the fort is palpable, and Nox laughs a little as he lets his head fall back, groaning softly. He smiles a little when she presses a kiss to his upper arm. The guide stops on the sidewalk to answer questions, but they’ll be back tomorrow anyway, so he and his girlfriend just head for their car, swinging their hands idly between them. He can feel Nox's relief, too, as they walk, as the tension has ebbed and the spring seems to be back in her step, even though night has finally settled completely.

Julian catches the tail end of the conversation the guide is having with some of the tour group as they pass.

“The fort did feel darker tonight, like it usually does when the figure is in the window—but sometimes I say that and I get blank looks, like I’m getting now, haha...”

Julian almost wants to stop and say that he saw it, that he'd felt it, too, the menace radiating from the building, but something stops him. He gets paid to go on the internet and scare himself, to embarrass himself more or less, but saying he saw a ghost in front of people is still a little...

He'll keep it to himself, at least maybe until tomorrow.

Or so he thinks, until they reach the car, and Nox asks him a question he wasn't expecting.

“Did you see it, too?” When he looks up at her from the other side of the car, she smiles a little. “The figure in the window on our way out?”

He blinks, surprised. “I thought I saw… something, but I wasn’t sure if it was just the paranoia or not.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “No, I saw it, too. In the window he told us about—a head and shoulders silhouette. Kinda smokey. Disappeared when I blinked, but it was definitely there.”

He shakes his head as they climb into the car, a little bit amazed to hear that, not only had she seen something, too, but it was the exact same thing he'd seen. How long has it been since the last time that happened? More than a year, at least.

The heat is welcome as he starts the car, and the sound of the radio helps fight back the last of tense atmosphere there had been inside the fort on their way out. After a minute, while Nox pulls up directions back to the hotel, he offers her his hand on the armrest between them.

She takes it immediately, intertwining their fingers, and he brings her knuckles to his lips to press a kiss to the back of them.

“That was actually very interesting and fun,” he says. “Thank you for suggesting it and making me go.”

Nox laughs, squeezing his hand affectionately. “Thanks for going with me. I know it wasn’t what you wanted to do, but…”

“As much as I complain, I really do enjoy our field,” he says airily, eyes on the road as he traces his thumb in figure eights around her knuckles. “ _And_ I love spending time with you in any capacity—so this was a good date.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“I will still complain about it tomorrow and probably on camera, though.”

“Hah! That’s fair.”

“Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5500 words later,,,
> 
> this is basically a retelling of an actual tour i took of fort george which,,,,, is why its so long lmao sORRY


	7. Favorite Cryptid

Nox wasn’t sure what she was expecting, when Julian told her to wait in the car, but this definitely wasn’t it.

He’d been giggling the whole time, which she should’ve realized meant something weird was about to happen. He said it was a surprise, and that she was going to love it, and _wait, there’s Muriel now, hang on._

She waits in the car for what feels like a while, listening to the only station that will come through clearly out in the middle of nowhere as they are. It’s some country song, which only grates on her nerves a little bit as she turns the little Mothman keychain she’d bought yesterday and hung off of her camera over in her hand. His little, red rhinestone eyes flash in the October sun as she takes a picture for the internet, and—

“Nox!”

She jumps a little, as Julian whips her door open and ducks down to say her name excitedly, dropping her phone in favor of clutching at her chest with a gasp.

Julian flinches, smiling apologetically, and touches her shoulder gently. “Sorry, darling. Got a little too excited there, but we’re ready for you.”

Nox raises an eyebrow at her boyfriend, trying to look around him. “We?” she repeats. “As in, you and Muriel?”

“Yes,” he says, grabbing at her chin to keep her from looking around him any farther.

“Muriel the camera guy, Muriel?” she asks, a little muffled from his grip on her face.

“Yes.”

“Muriel, the man who I’ve seen smile maybe three times in my life, Muriel.”

“ _Yes_.”

“I don’t understand.”

Julian laughs, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “Don’t worry about it. This is going to be good. Just—keep your eyes closed until I say so, okay?”

“...okay,” she mumbles after a beat, eyes sliding shut. “I trust you.”

“Excellent.”

With some careful maneuvering, she and Julian make their way towards the back of the car, and he squeezes her hands reassuringly when she nearly trips over her own feet on the way. He’s still snickering to himself, as he starts to explain.

“Alright, so—you know how to lure Bigfoot, people use a mating call?”

“Yes…?”

“We don’t really have a mating call for Mothman, but he’s supposed to have excellent vision, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So theoretically, he finds his mates with his sight. Well… open your eyes.”

Nox does as he says—and immediately doubles over in laughter, wheezing, at the sight that greets her.

Muriel is standing a few feet in front of her, holding his camera like usual, but _unlike_ usual, he’s wearing a set of fuzzy antennas on his head, a little white cloth that she’s pretty sure is meant to be a wedding veil, a pair of round, red sunglasses with light up red LEDs attached around the lenses, and what appears to be a cape from a children’s Halloween costume. He’s also biting back laughter, smiling wider than she’s pretty sure she’s ever seen him in her life.

“ _Ilya_ ,” Nox wheezes, voice high with mirth. “Ilya, we’re not— _haHA_ —we’re not offering Muriel up to be M-Mothman’s _bride_!”

“Hey, it’s a good idea!”

“It’s really not.”

“Well, _one of us_ needed to try it, and I wasn’t going to share you with Mothman. What if he’s, like, a better kisser than me?”

“ _Ilya_!”

Julian laughs, taking the camera from Muriel then so that he can get a good shot of him for the episode. Muriel is laughing now as well, a pleasant sound, deep and warm.

“He’s also closer to the right size I think a Mothlady might be,” Julian explains. “I might be, too, but I think I’m a bit too lithe and slender to make for an attractive Mothlady.”

Nox is still laughing, unable to even think of a response at this point. Her cheeks are starting to hurt by the time she can glance at Muriel without cackling again.

“Would you believe me if I said it was his idea?” Julian asks after a moment, turning to look at her.

She shakes her head. “No.”

“Well, it was—and it’s gold. Can you imagine all of the _Bride of Mothman_ merch we’ll be able to make?”

She snorts as Muriel reaches for the camera again, shaking her head.

“I didn’t even know you _had_ a sense of humor,” she says, crossing her arms and tilting her head, “and here you are, being funnier than Julian and I ever could be combined.”

Muriel just beams at her, obviously pleased.

“Thank you.”

Nox shakes her head again, sighing as a breeze picks up to cool her flushed cheeks. “Alright. Let’s get ready for our hike—Mothman will want to meet his betrothed once the sun sets, I’m sure.”

Muriel’s quiet laughter joins Julian’s as she pulls the trunk open, and the warmest sensation of affection washes over her.

She’s not sure when she started thinking of the both of them as _her boys_ , but that’s the sort of fondness she feels as she turns to look at them both again. Julian claps Muriel on the shoulder warmly on his way as he joins her, and she’s pretty sure that this is the most she’s ever seen Muriel smile—ever.

And it’s nice.

Maybe he’ll start to smile more often, now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> muriel and julian are Friends now okay,,,


	8. Warm

He paces when he’s stressed.

It’s something he’s always been aware of, especially as often as he’s been told to knock it off, but it does _sort of_ help his anxiety when it’s bad. His restless legs have something to do, and it’s less time consuming than going to the gym or on a long walk—especially when there’s a deadline fast approaching and he _can’t_ —

“Ilya?”

The sound of his girlfriend’s voice from the doorway makes him hesitate, pausing in his rhythm to look at her. She leans against the door frame idly, dressed in nothing but one of his old t-shirts, and his gaze catches on her bare shoulder where the neck of the shirt is too big. Nox offers him a smile, and says, “You seem worked up.”

He snorts, shaking his head. “Do I? What gave me away?”

Her eyes soften just a little. “What’s got you stressed out? Work?”

Julian sighs heavily, returning to his pacing. “ _Yes_. I’m supposed to have the episode ready to edit by Monday and it’s just— _ugh!_ ”

With a frustrated groan, he sits heavily on the end of the bed, rubbing roughly at his face before knotting his fingers in his hair, pulling until he’s gritting his teeth against the pain. Beating himself up won’t help either, of course, but…

“Hey, hey, _hey_ —” Nox gasps, and he relaxes his grip when she pulls gently at his wrists. He refuses to look her in the eye as she holds his hands, eyes fixed on that cursed computer screen in the corner of the room. She rubs her thumbs gently across the thin skin on the inside of his wrists as she murmurs, “Can I help you? I can write good, too, you know.”

He sniffs. “You have your own stuff to worry about.”

“My own stuff that I finished a couple of hours ago, you mean?”

That makes him frown a little more, and she sighs as she drops his hands in favor of reaching up to cup his cheeks. She strokes her thumbs across his cheekbones a few times, before her touch trails a little higher, and she traces the dark circles under his eyes gently.

“When was the last time you slept, love?”

His lips twitch as he shrugs and says, “I think I got, like, an hour and a half last night? Maybe a little more?”

That was the _wrong_ answer.

“ _Ilya_.”

He winces, finally bringing his gaze back to hers. She doesn’t look mad, at least—just… disappointed.

Which is worse.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, deflating a little. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Shh,” she breathes, cutting him off with a finger to his lips. “You’re done working for the night.”

“But—!”

“But, nothing. You’ll have a much better time coming back to this after you’ve gotten a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is Sunday, so you can sleep in late, too.”

“But I can’t sleep like this, Nox. You know how much trouble I have when I’m _not_ stressed. I just need to—”

She cuts him off with a kiss this time, a much more effective tactic that has him leaning into her immediately, humming against her mouth. She lingers, until he lets out a slow, soft sigh into her lips, a little bit of tension seeping from his frame. He’s not sure she _can_ kiss away his worries, but if she wants to try, he certainly wouldn’t _object_...

When she pulls away again, there’s a new look in her eye, some kind of emotion that has his stomach flipping in anticipation. She caresses his cheeks again as she says, “I have an idea to get you to relax.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm. Take your shirt off.”

He blinks a few times, eyebrows shooting towards his hairline as she pulls her hands away and starts to rub them together. There’s a faint glow between her palms as he watches, and he’s only partially sure where this is going, but either way, he’s quick with grabbing his shirt by the back of the neck and tossing it clear across the room, making her laugh as he scrambles to do as she asked.

Julian sits a little straighter on the edge of the mattress as he waits for her next move, biting his lip when she steps back into his reach.

Smiling sweetly, Nox reaches for his face again, and her voice is a low, soothing murmur as she asks, “How does this feel?”

Nox’s skin usually runs a little warm, and his runs a little cool, but when her fingers touch his skin this time, they’re hot, like she’d just held them under hot water. He groans, leaning into her touch as his eyelids flutter at the sensation.

“Ilya?” she prompts when he does nothing but close his eyes and go still. “Too hot?”

He shakes his head, goosebumps prickling across his skin as the heat from her hands starts to radiate, sinking in deep, and the tension headache that had been throbbing in his temples starts to fade a little. She runs her warm fingers across his features gently, firm enough to smooth away the aches as the heat does its trick—tracing his nose, pinching gently at the bridge of it (making him laugh), running her fingers up across the ridge of his brow, smoothing away the ever present wrinkle between them. She continues farther up to run her hands through his hair then, massaging his scalp and giggling when he moans, dropping his head forward until his face is buried in her chest.

He reaches up to wrap his arms around her waist after another beat, smiling as he feels her laugh. She presses a kiss to the top of his head as her hands run downward then, warm across the cool skin at the nape of his neck and across his shoulders. She makes a few loops there before she pauses.

“Lay down on your stomach so I can get the rest of your back,” she says softly, tangling her hands in his hair again as she presses another kiss to the top of his head.

“Nox, you don’t have to—” falls from his lips before he can think about it as he pulls back to look up at her, but she just cuts him off.

 _“Shhhh_ ,” she breathes into his lips, kissing him slow and deep. “Let me take care of you.”

She lets a wave of heat roll across his skin to help her point, and it feels so good that he finds he can’t even contemplate arguing with her.

The sheets are cool as he sinks into them, on his stomach with his arms folded beneath his pillow. Nox follows him after a moment, the sound of something opening the only thing he registers before she’s straddling him on the mattress. He groans again when she bends to brush a kiss against the nape of his neck, running her warm hands down the length of his back, slow and firm and covered in what must be some of her lotion (the smell of the sea floats up into his nose and another bit of tension seeps away), and the heat sinks deep into his muscles. He can already feel his exhaustion tugging at him insistently before she’s even really started, as he struggles to keep his eyes open as she kneads at his back.

“ _God_ ,” she grunts after a minute, leaning her weight into her hands to press harder at what must be a stubborn knot of tension. The heat radiating from her hands starts to tingle a little, and he sighs blissfully as more tension seeps from his muscles. “How do you even manage to stand up like this?”

“Hmm… used to it,” he mumbles, and she laughs as she digs her thumbs in between his shoulder blades.

“I should start doing this once a month,” Nox sighs, more to herself than him. “No wonder you never sleep—this must be like lying on a bed of _rocks_.”

She leans on the heels of her palms over the center of his spine, and he groans from deep in his chest when his back pops a few times. She continues all the way to the small of his back, and then moves back up, bending to leave a trail of kisses on his shoulders that makes him grin sleepily into the pillow.

Bit by bit, as she continues to diligently massage his back, he relaxes beneath her. He’s never felt like this in his life—even the one or two times he’s paid for massages, it’s never been like this. Maybe part of it is that it’s _her_ —that she’s the woman he loves and one of the people he trusts most in the world, or maybe it’s the magic she’s using, but either way, he’s never been so relaxed in his life.

He’s _so_ relaxed, in fact, that he doesn’t even realize he’s dozed off until he wakes up.

In the morning.

Julian blinks blearily, trying to orient himself as sunlight pours in from the window. He’d turned over on his side some time in the night, still on top the blankets, though Nox must’ve covered him up with one of their extra blankets while he slept. He’s stretched out diagonally across the entire bed, which makes him frown as he pushes himself up on his elbow.

There’s no sign of his girlfriend in the bedroom, but after another moment, he realizes he can smell something cooking, and he can hear the sound of the radio from the living room. As he pushes himself into a sitting position, he’s stunned to find that nothing aches at all, and he sighs heavily as he draws his knees up under the blanket, bracing his elbows against them as he rubs the sleep from his eyes.

When he finally slides out of bed and stands, it’s actually almost unbelievable how easily he can straighten his back, how easily he can suck in a deep breath. He hasn’t felt this good getting out of bed in—hell, who knows how long?

He pads out into the living area after another minute, running a hand through his messy hair as he takes in the scene in front of him.

Nox is standing at the stove, still in his t-shirt from last night, with the cat curled up on the bar beside her. She turns when he clears his throat, smiling as she says, “Ah, I was just about to come wake you up! How are you feeling? Did you sleep good?”

He drifts closer, eyeing the mess of papers and notepads on the kitchen table warily as he passes it. “I feel great,” he says hesitantly, watching her move things off the stove as he sidles up and wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I haven’t been this pain-free in years.”

Nox beams, setting the empty pan aside and spinning in his arms, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. “Good! Good, I’m glad.”

He smiles, before turning to look over his shoulder at the table again. “What’s, uhh…?”

“I read over what you had on the Google doc—”

“How did you log into my Google account?”

“You sent me the share link for this week’s script on Friday?”

“...oh, yeah.”

She laughs a little, shooing the cat away to set their breakfast in front of the two bar stools. She goes to fix him a cup of coffee as she explains, “Yeah. Anyway, I read over what you had and made some notes and I wrote an ending for the script for you to take a look at. If nothing else, at least we’ll have a completed script to turn in, right?”

“Did you stay up all night?” he asks, frowning as she moves away from him to sit.

She’s shoveled a forkful of eggs into her mouth, and she hurries to swallow it as she shakes her head, coughing a little as he sits beside her. “No! No, I slept on the couch.”

“Ohh, Nox, I’m sor—”

“—no, hush,” she cuts him off, nudging his thigh with her knee under the counter. “You needed the rest, and the couch is a pullout, remember? I’m just glad you’re feeling better. You _look_ like you’re feeling better.”

“I am, but...”

“Then it was 1000% worth it,” she says with a shrug. “I’m going to spoil you rotten, Ilya. I meant it.”

Julian just snorts as he sips at his coffee, butterflies dancing in his stomach as he watches her grin at him. He’ll never get used to how pretty she is, he thinks, or how sweet.

“I love you,” he tells her.

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when i dont know how to end a fic i end it on "i love you" have you noticed lol
> 
> please consider leaving a comment on any prompts you really enjoy! even if its just a lil heart emoji or something i'd really appreciate it bc im putting way more effort into this than i was supposed to :"")


	9. Costume

Julian was a theater geek in high school, and Nox has never been more aware of that fact than this very moment.

Sure, he gets a bit _dramatic_ on set sometimes, especially when they’ve decided to dress up for the show. He’s very good at waxing poetic about whatever tickles his fancy, lamenting his woes or dramatically declaring his love for her (which is new and sometimes very embarrassing, but she wouldn’t change him for the world). He has a lot of fun with it, and she thinks that maybe if they weren’t so busy with work and being hopelessly in love, maybe he’d like to join one of the community theater groups on the weekends.

Still, she’s rather surprised by just how very much he’s gotten into his character for the Halloween party.

And by that she means, he’s _really_ enjoying pretending to be a centuries old, undead, blood-sucking creature of the night. Really, _really_ enjoying it, to the point that he’s been drinking Kool Aid out of one of her good wine glasses and talking with a thick Russian accent since he got to her place, already dressed and waiting for her to finish getting ready.

Nox has chosen a different costume than his rather than matching, even though it’s their first Halloween together. She’d been planning this costume for months, so even though they just started dating last month, she wasn’t going to just _drop_ her costume to match with her new boyfriend.

Plus, as Julian had pointed out when she worried about it—there _is_ something sort of couple-y about a witcher and a vampire, if you think about it. It’s sort of like dressing up like Van Helsing and Dracula, but cooler, because witchers have those cool eyes and _please, oh god, you look so hot with that glamour, leave it._

And so she does, right after she offers to actually give him fangs for the night, so he doesn’t have to wear those stupid little plastic fangs and can actually, really enjoy himself.

That might have been where her mistake was, and why he just got more and more into it as the night went on, but honestly?

She’s _really_ into it, especially by the time they’ve both gotten some spiked punch in their systems.

It’s been years since she’s been to a Halloween party quite like this, with booze and low lighting and pounding music. This is actually the party the office has every year (the real one after the one during the work day), though usually she and Portia and Julian tend to spend that night at home, watching scary movies in their favorite spooky pajamas and eating popcorn. This year, though, they’d all decided that a party sounded like fun, especially since Portia had actually been invited this year, and so here she was, tipsy and curled up on a dirty couch with Julian’s mouth on her neck.

It feels a bit like she’s back in college, truth be told, as she slides her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and turns her head so that his lips land sloppily on hers. Making out in a stranger’s living room, with music so loud you can’t hear yourself think, surrounded by smoke and other people you would probably recognize in the daylight as the alcohol running through your veins makes you brave—she’d only been to a few frat parties back in the day, but this was about how it felt, and it’s kind of exciting.

Julian’s hand that had settled on her hip tightens as her tongue slips past his lips, prodding curiously at her own magical handiwork that is his fangs. She can feel him groan as she turns towards him a little more to kiss him deeper still.

He leans after her when she breaks the kiss, both of them a little bit out of breath, and the look on his face when her eyes flutter open sends heat washing over her skin. His eyes trail over her features hungrily, lingering on her lips as he stays so close that his nose brushes hers with every little movement, and her stomach flips when the hand he has on her hip finds bare skin. Julian closes the distance between them again, sinking his lips into hers slowly, drawing out the tension as he sighs into her mouth and nips at her lower lip with his newly sharp teeth.

As his hand slides up the back of her shirt, her heart feels like it's about to break its way out of her chest, and all she can think about is how much she wishes they were alone. She knows that there’s surely other people caught up in each other like they are—it’s usually par for the course with parties like this—and even though they feel very much like the only people in the world right now, she doesn’t want an audience.

“You wanna get out of here?” she gasps, leaning away as he’s trying to kiss her again.

He raises an eyebrow, and the only description she has for the look on his face is _mischievous_ _smirking_. “Ohh? Eager to get me alone, _witcher_?”

Oh, are they playing a _game_?

Nox has never been into role-playing before, and she’s already giggling at the thought of it (she’s not an actress by any stretch of the imagination), but she finds herself nodding anyway, grabbing tight at the lapels of his coat and pulling him just a little closer.

“I’d just rather not have an audience for what I want to do to you,” she breathes, and Julian’s eyes roll back in his head a little bit as he drops his head to bury his face in her neck to muffle his groan.

“I’ll text the uber,” he says as he pulls back, grinning at her with barely contained excitement, “you go grab us a couple of pieces of cake to take home.”

 

* * *

  

Julian does calm down a little bit on the ride home, mostly because sitting in the back of the uber and making out would have been _too_ weird, so they settle for holding hands in the back seat. Nox leans into his side, resting her head on his shoulder, and he sighs contentedly in the dark, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head.

By the time they reach his apartment, he’s being so calm that she thinks maybe they’ve lost the moment, even though she certainly won’t mind curling up in his pajamas and eating candy, it does make her a little sad. Maybe she should’ve just put up with the idea of having an audience for the sake of—

—Julian catches her by the waist as she closes the fridge after putting the cake away, kissing her hard and pressing her up against the fridge door, groaning in what she’d almost say sounds like relief. She kisses him back without a word, pulling him closer by the front of his coat, opening her mouth for him when he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, and he hums softly against her in response.

“This feels like a dream,” he rasps after a minute, and he’s not doing the accent anymore, trailing his kisses up her jaw. “I keep waiting to wake up.”

She laughs a little, wrapping her arms around his neck and tipping her head back to encourage him as he drops a few more kisses to the line of her throat. “You know, you say stuff like that a lot.”

“That’s just the way you make me feel,” he replies easily, and she can feel him smile against her throat. He sighs, tilting his head to bring his mouth back to hers. “I’ve wanted this for so _long_ …”

She kisses him back for a moment, before she murmurs, “We should sit down so you don’t hurt your neck… especially since _my_ neck is the one that’s supposed to hurt, isn’t it?”

Nox winces a little at the wording, realizing suddenly how very out of practice she is at actively trying to be flirtatious, but he gets her meaning anyway as he pulls away to grin down at her. He drags his thumb across her lower lip as he asks, “Is that an invitation?”

She raises an eyebrow at him, curling her fingers around his cravat and pulling gently. “Should I put it in writing, too?”

He grins wickedly, and heat coils low in her gut. “Aren’t you worried I’ll lose control? Seems reckless, even for a witcher.”

Nox just smiles and pulls him a little closer. “ _P_ _lease_ —I’m not afraid of a little bite, Ilya.”

Julian’s eyes are brighter than she’s pretty sure she’s ever seen them as he pulls away and, before she can properly prepare herself, he bends and knocks her knees clean out from under her with his arm, scooping her up bridal style and laughing when she yelps. He does nothing but smile at her for a heart-stopping moment before he takes a few steps and dumps her unceremoniously on his bed.

There’s a pause while they both kick their shoes off, shedding a few layers to be more comfortable before Julian stretches himself over her, bringing his mouth back to hers with a blissful sigh. As his kisses deepen, and she lets out a quiet sound into his mouth, he grins and says, “I _told_ you I was a good drunk kisser.”

Quirking an eyebrow as she slips her tongue past his lips again, she cups his cheeks as she says, “I don’t think you’re allowed to say that when I’ve still got enough of my wits about me to form complete sentences.”

“ _That_ sounds like a challenge.”

“Oh, it absolutely is.”

There’s something that feels strange about being in his bed, about being under him while he’s looking at her like _that_ —like they’re doing something _forbidden_ , crossing a line they weren’t meant to cross. The fact that she can see how kiss swollen his lips are in the light streaming in through his window, the fact that he’s so close that she can taste the alcohol on his breath, that his hand is snaking up the front of her shirt, long, cool fingers spread out on the toned muscles of her stomach…

She _loves_ it.

He seems to be a bit lost in thought, too, distracted like she was, maybe, by the very fact that they’re here like this, together, when he doesn’t really move for a minute. His eyes linger on her lips, and her eyes catch on the movement as his tongue darts out to wet his lips, but he still doesn’t move.

“Hey, Ilya?”

“Yes, my love?”

A rush of heat washes over Nox’s face at that, and the softness in his eyes as he smiles and brings his gaze back to hers does nothing to help. She grins up at him, running her hand through his hair, and giggles, “Kiss me, you fool.”

He laughs, and presses his forehead to hers for a beat, grinning with so much joy that it makes her feel like she’s about to start floating away.

He closes the gap between them with a mumble of, “If you _insist_.”

 

* * *

 

When she wakes up the next morning, Julian is curled around her, arm around her waist, hips cradling hers with one of his legs tangled through hers as they’re both curled up on their sides. She can feel his breath flutter against the back of her neck as his forehead rests against her nape, and she smiles into the pillow as she shifts to cover his hand on her stomach with hers.

“Mm,” he groans as soon as she moves, and she can’t quite stop the shiver that runs down her spine at the roughness of his voice. “Morning.”

“How long have you been awake?” she asks, turning her head a little.

He moves to press a kiss to the back of her shoulder, and she laughs a little at the state of his hair when his eyes meet hers. She can feel him shrug around her as he says, “I don’t know. I’ve just sort of been floating on cloud nine about being able to hold you like this.”

She blushes, shaking her head, as she readjusts to lay on her back, letting him stay close, and—

“... _oh_.”

Nox frowns up at him, concerned, before he reaches up and delicately brushes his fingers against her throat. He traces a shape there, and smiles a little bit bashfully.

“Oops.”

She snorts, tilting her head a little so he can see her neck better. “Is it a hickey?” she asks, remembering pretty clearly every time last night he’d lingered there. She’s not surprised in the least, especially since she’d practically begged him for it.

He chuckles, nodding. “One of my best, I’d say.”

They make eye contact, and Nox makes it to the count of 3 before they both burst into laughter.

“Happy Halloween,” she chortles as he buries his face in her shoulder.

“Hm." She can feel his smile against her skin. "Happy Halloween.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one i had to rewrite on day 10 lmao buT IT TURNED OUT SO GOOD nox's first hickey from julian :3c
> 
> also "I _told_ you I was a good drunk kisser" is reference to [something more](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14170176/chapters/32662185) the very first installment of the Buzzfeed Unsolved AU fic series :D


	10. Broken

When she comes home, there’s a pile of broken glass on the floor.

She frowns at it for a beat, wondering what had happened, because she’d only been gone an hour and Julian had still been sleeping when she left—before she registers what else is on the floor.

Leading from the pile of glass, back out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, is a trail of bloody footprints. Nox’s stomach drops at the sight of it, and she hurries to set the groceries for dinner down on the kitchen table, hurrying to make sure her boyfriend was alright. If he’d only stepped on the glass, he was probably fine, if a little sore and unhappy, but _still_ —

She finds him in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the tub with his pajama bottoms rolled up to his knees as he holds his foot under the faucet to rinse the cut. The water runs pink against the white of the bathtub, swirling down the drain as he hisses quietly to himself.

“Ilya?”

The sound of her voice startles him so badly he jumps, banging his shin into the metal faucet so hard that Nox flinches with sympathy. She moves to kneel beside the tub, to get a closer look at that cut, but the look on his face stops her.

...why does he look so scared?

“Are you okay?” she tries, taking a hesitant step closer. “Can I help?”

The terror that had been written all over his face only lasts for a split second, before he’s fixed a neutral expression back onto his features. He smiles a little, dropping his gaze back to his foot, and shrugs.

“I still— _agh_ —I think I still have a piece of glass I need to pull out, but I can’t grab it with my fingers. I was gonna look for the tweezers, but…”

Nox drops to her knees on the bathroom floor and reaches out to touch his knee gently, while her other hand smooths over his ankle and the top of his foot. She knows he doesn’t always like it when she uses her magic on him, but he’s hurt, so he’ll just have to get over it as she tries to feel for the extra piece of broken glass.

There _is_ one left, buried deep where he must’ve stepped on it with his full weight.

Squeezing his knee in what she hopes is reassurance, she glances up at him and asks, “Do you want me to get it out for you?”

“Can you?”

She hums, nodding. “I can. I can also close this up some so we don’t have to take a trip to the ER tonight, if you want? It’s up to you—I know me using magic on you like that makes you uncomfortable.”

Julian shakes his head, and though he does look expressly uncomfortable, he says, “No, go ahead. We don’t really have the money for stitches right now, do we?”

“Not if we still wanna take that trip to San Diego at the end of the month,” she says airily, using her magic on the running water while he’s distracted. “I’m gonna numb your foot a little bit so it doesn’t hurt so much, but you’ll probably still feel a tugging sensation, okay?”

He sighs unhappily, but when she looks up at him, he’s nodding. “Okay.”

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

As he starts talking, she sets to work, the water glowing a pleasant blue around his foot as she works the piece of glass out of the cut.

“There’s not much to tell. I woke up and you were gone. I panicked for a minute like I— _ah_ —like I always do, and then I checked my phone and realized you’d just gone out to get stuff for dinner. I got up to get a drink, and then I stepped on the glass.”

He makes an uncomfortable sound as she finally dislodges the glass, and it falls harmlessly into the tub with a _clink_. She uses both hands to close the cut as much as she can with just the tap water, and sits back after another beat, satisfied.

“Let’s put some antibiotics on this and wrap it up to be safe, okay?”

Julian just nods, shifting to lift his feet out of the tub as Nox stands to get what she needs out of the medicine cabinet. While she has her back turned, her boyfriend speaks up again, voice shaking a little as he says, “I’m sorry. It was… one of the nice wine glasses that broke.”

“Was it?” she asks with another hum as she turns over one of the things of ointment in the cabinet to read the label.

“Yeah. Kala must’ve knocked it off after I—after I left it on the counter last night.”

Nox smiles as she finds the right stuff, turning to drop back to her knees and bandage his foot up properly. His expression is wary, as she sets to work on his foot with a quiet sigh. “That’s not the first glass she’s broken,” Nox says after a beat, as she wraps his foot with the bandage.

“But… it was one of the glasses that your father got you.”

She shrugs. “It’s just a glass. I’m just glad that you’re both okay.” She finishes wrapping his foot and makes a face. “Well… I’m glad you’re _mostly_ okay,” she adds with a wry grin.

He doesn’t smile back, thick brows furrowed in confusion. “You’re not mad?”

“Why on Earth would I be mad?”

“Because my stupidity led to one of your things breaking?”

“So what? They’re just things.”

“So… I don’t understand.”

Nox snorts, reaching for his face to caress his cheek, because it’s sweet of him to be so concerned about her things, but that’s all they are— _things_. They’re not that important, at the end of the day, and—

—she stops dead in her tracks when Julian flinches, leaning away from her like he’s expecting her to hit him.

“...Ilya?”

He realizes what he’s done a heartbeat later, and she watches his eyes widen, gaze drawn to her hand again. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to think of something to say, as his expression just gets more and more upset. Eventually, all he says is, “Sorry,” in a hoarse whisper. “Sorry, I’m—sorry.”

She remembers, suddenly, how very confused he’d been the first week or so they were together. How he hadn’t understood why she wanted to kiss him so much, even when he hadn’t ‘ _done anything to deserve it_ ’. She’d thought that was just his depression talking, and had just kissed him some more, deep and slow, until he’d stopped trying to ask questions and just let himself be kissed, melting in her arms as he pulled her closer.

Apparently, if the look on his face is any indicator, that line of thinking is actually something he’s been _taught_ , and…

Rising to her feet, Nox steps closer to him, reaching out to cup his cheeks, gently, and he leans into her hands this time, closing his eyes tight as she leans in and presses a kiss to his forehead. “I,” she begins seriously, “am going to personally fistfight every single person who taught you that love is something you earn, and that the proper response to an _accident_ is to get _angry_.”

Julian sniffles a little, laughing weakly. “Shall I get you a list?”

“Hmm. Maybe later,” she sighs, leaning in to peck him on the lips. “Right now, I want you to go sit on the bed.”

He looks up at her curiously as she pulls away completely, more confusion written in his pretty grey eyes, but he does as she asks, limping a little as he goes. When he sits heavily on the side of the bed, she follows after him, shrugging her jacket off and letting it drop on the floor near the closet. As she comes closer, he opens his mouth and starts to ask, “Are you sure I’m not in— _mmh_ …”

Nox cuts him off by sliding her hands into his hair and kissing him firmly on the lips. He kisses her back immediately, and as she steps in between his sprawled legs, she can feel his hands twitch like he wants to pull her closer. She doesn’t pull far away when she breaks the kiss, staying so close that their open mouths brush with every breath they take. She takes a moment to take advantage of that, dragging her lips against his, and he leans after her drunkenly, yearning, until she closes the gap again.

After a few moments of this, she climbs into his lap, pressing against his sternum until he falls back onto the mattress, and he groans into her lips when she kisses him again. He still hasn’t touched her back, though, so she takes his hands and brings them to her waist for him, tilting her head to trail her kisses down his throat as he pants above her.

“Is this what’s going to happen ev- _every_ time I break something?” he gasps, tilting his head back further with a quiet sound when she drags her teeth against his pulse point. “Because it really seems— _ah_ —counterproductive.”

She brings her lips back to his with a soft sigh, smiling as he kisses her back desperately, and breathes, “Until your first instinct isn’t _‘flinch because I expect to be yelled at or worse_ ’? Yes.”

“But…”

“Ilya, I love you,” she says, pulling back to look down at him. He looks back at her curiously, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt on her hips. “It’s part of my job as your girlfriend to make sure you feel safe and loved every minute of every day.” She kisses him again, this time on the tip of his nose. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of how I’m going to react to something breaking, okay? You are more important to me than literally anything else in this entire apartment.”

His grin doesn’t reach his eyes. “Even Kala?”

She snorts. “If the apartment was burning and I could only save you or Kala for some weird reason? Of _course_ I would pick you.” Nox runs a hand through his hair, smiling sweetly. “I love my cat, but you’re the love of my life. I’d miss her, but the idea of living without _you_?” she scoffs. “I’d rather die.”

His face crumbles, and the only thing he can seem to say is her name, as he sighs it into the space between them, straining to kiss her again, reaching up to cup her face in his hands.

Nox hasn’t fixed him, by any means. His first instinct won’t change over night, or even any time soon, probably, but…

It’s a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one fought me in that i restarted it like 7 different times but fjdklj finally,,, nox gets to be sweet on her boY


	11. Magic

Julian hates going to places with supposed demonic infestations, he really does.

Not only do those places genuinely scare him, and not only do they give them the most hostile pieces of evidence, but he _always_ has nightmares for at least a week afterwards. Once it went on for a whole _month_ —and that had been back when he still lived in that studio apartment by himself. He’d made it to the fifth night of night terrors before he called Nox at 3 in the morning and begged her to, _“Please, let me stay the night I think I’m gonna have a heart attack in my sleep at this rate_.”

Which, his girlfriend is sweet as sugar, and she hadn’t even been his girlfriend yet, but she’d still let him come over and basically camp out for two weeks until he felt comfortable enough to sleep alone again.

(Sometimes he wonders how it took them so long to move in together when they had been _like that_ for so long—how no one ever smacked them both upside the head is beyond him.)

What he _also_ hates is his own stubborn insistence on attempting to stay the night in said demonically infested locations.

Every time.

There are no beds in this particular abandoned location, so he and Nox have set up with a bunch of sleeping bags in the middle of what used to be the bedroom. She’s not paying him much mind, a bit put out because of the cold with the broken heating system as she scrolls mindlessly through Twitter.

He keeps tensing up at every shadow, every sound the autumn wind makes around the house, every noise as the house settles around them. He knows that Nox has set up wards to keep the demon from killing them in their sleep, but… well, he doesn’t know how much better that really makes him feel, seeing as she could just _say_ she did that and then not have actually done anything.

Not… that he thinks she’d lie to him.

He’s just freaking out, a little bit.

“Ilya, I can feel how tense you are all the way over here,” Nox says after a moment, and he groans as she smiles at him from where she’s sitting against the wall. “Is there anything I can say to make you feel better?”

Julian snorts, scooting a little closer to her while still wrapped up in his sleeping bag. “I don’t know... If I were to, say, become cursed from one of these places—”

“—you _won’t_.”

“—how much hope would I theoretically have of having it lifted?”

Nox stares at him for a second, the ghost of a smile on her lips, until she sighs and wiggles down into her own sleeping bag, turning on her side to look him in the eye. “It depends on what kind of curse it is,” she says simply. “All curses can be lifted, pretty much, but actually being able to successfully manage it varies from curse to curse."

He blinks at her, a little distracted with how her golden eyes seem to flash, catching what little light there is in the dark—and he wonders distantly if that’s a spell, or if her eyes are just like that.

“Is, like… I don’t know, _true love’s kiss_ or whatever—” he winces at his own words, because it sounds so _stupid_ , “—is that a thing? That actually works?”

Nox’s lips twitch.

“Uh, yeah? Of course it is? Haven’t you noticed how much better you’ve felt since we finally kissed?”

...Oh.

 _Oh_.

He blinks a few times, mouth slack as he thinks about it, and—yeah, he _has_ felt so much better since they started kissing, hasn’t he? Every time they kiss, it’s like all of his worries have been lifted for a brief moment, like he’s unstoppable, at the top of the world.

“But,” he starts hesitantly, “isn’t that just because… we’re… uhh…”

She giggles, reaching up to brush his hair away from his face. “Do you have another explanation for it? We’re in love, aren’t we? Or do you not think it’s _true_ love?”

“What—no, I didn’t mean—”

His girlfriend laughs, and his face feels suspiciously warm as she grins at him. “Easy, Big Guy. I’m teasing.”

He frowns, stomach turning uncomfortably. “About… all of it?”

Nox snorts, shaking her head. “No. Love is the oldest magic in the universe. It can’t fix _everything_ , but I dunno—can you think of a reason why we make each other feel so good? If it’s not magic, what is it?”

That’s… a very good point.

“I don’t know… I mean, it’s brain chemicals and all that, but that doesn’t really explain _why_ or… anything beyond what kind of effect love has on the body…”

Nox inches a little closer, until the tip of her nose brushes against his. He can feel the urge to close the distance already, as his eyes are drawn towards her smiling lips. She sighs softly as she says, “I’ve known magic my entire life, Ilya. What I feel for you? It’s got to be magic. It feels so wonderful, I don’t have a better explanation. Do you?”

He shakes his head, and he’s a bit distracted by how much he wants to kiss her—but when is he not distracted by that, honestly? She makes him feel more alive than he ever has, and even though he’s still lowkey scared out of his mind of things that lurk in the shadows, when she’s by his side, well—he can face whatever the world has to throw at him. He’ll still be scared, and he might not like it, but as long as she’s there?

He can do anything.

And that has to be some kind of magic.

Nox finally kisses him, soft and sweet, and he sighs into her mouth contentedly. She lingers a moment, and his lips tingle when she finally breaks away to ask, “Are you feeling any better?”

He nods, leaning after her for another kiss. He grins into her mouth mischievously as he says, “I _am_ feeling better. In fact, I’m feeling so much better, it’s almost like _magic_.”

The sound of her delighted laughter fills the dark room, and the knot of anxiety sitting in his chest since they turned the lights out eases a little bit, as she pulls him in for one more kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nox didn't actually believe in true love's kiss until she started having him on, but the more she tried to talk him into believing it the more she was like "........wait"


	12. Amulet

Thrift shops are usually a gold mine of strange and charming artifacts, and magical thrift shops even more so. Nox has been to her fair share of them in her life, usually looking for books or ingredients or pieces of clothing that her great uncle’s magic shop hadn’t had _—_ but, as Julian looks around, wide-eyed with his jaw slack, she gets the feeling that her boyfriend has not even been to _one_.

He’s also holding the camera, because he’d decided he wanted to vlog this experience for his weekly upload to their channel.

She says _their_ channel because it technically is, and she’s in pretty much every video, but Julian is about 99% responsible for the content getting made or posted at all. She enjoys their internet stardom quite a bit, and always likes doing Twitch streams or appearing on podcasts or _whatever—_ but she’s not really interested in keeping up with it that much.

Someone on his Twitter had suggested a game called _thrift store roulette_ , which basically consisted of going to a thrift store, shutting your eyes, and letting your partner tell you when to stop. You do that a few times to create outfits.

Simple enough, and it sounded like fun, but Nox had been the one to suggest the magical thrift store, because they wouldn’t be the stars of a paranormal investigation show on the internet if there _wasn’t_ a chance of them accidentally buying something haunted, right?

Well, that _had_ been her reasoning, but now, faced with a wall of jewelry ranging from the completely mundane to _I’m pretty sure that thing will lay a curse on our family for generations if you touch it_ , she’s not really sure. Especially since her boyfriend can’t tell the difference, and is running his fingers along pretty much all of them.

 _At least,_ she thinks, _the very cursed one is behind a glass case._

“Haha, hey, Nox, look at this sweet necklace.”

Nox _is_ looking, and while she supposes it is very pretty, she knows what the intricately carved rune means, and it’s making her very nervous.

“Ilya, put that back,” she hisses, trying to reach for it only to have him move it out of her reach.

Damn him and his giraffe limbs.

“Put it back!”

“Why? What’s the matter with it?”

She finally catches him by the elbow, and she whispers very loudly, “This is a _fertility amulet_ , and we are not bringing it home with us!”

He actually drops it the second the word _fertility_ falls from her lips, and it makes a loud _clunk_ as it falls back onto the wooden shelf. Julian makes a face, wiping his hand on the front of his shirt like he’d just touched something sticky, and Nox giggles as he turns the camera back towards her face.

“Should I… I don’t know, wash my hands? Or has it already cursed me with the fertile loins of a Greek god?”

Nox, unprepared for that sentence to come out of her boyfriend’s mouth, doubles over in mirth, wheezing and clutching at her stomach. Every time she calms down even a little bit, she makes eye contact with Julian, and she dissolves into another round of giggles, until tears are streaming down her face and her voice has gone hoarse.

It’s a while later when she’s able to draw a deep breath, and Julian just grins at her as he asks, “You good?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Didn’t want to have to explain that to the medics if you ended up passing out because your boyfriend almost got cursed with the bountiful loins of Zeus _—_ ”

" _—_ I need you to stop saying the word ‘loins’ right now immediately.”

“ _Snrrk—_ yes, darling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didnt know what to do for this thanks @ jenna marbles and her bf julien for giving me this idea


	13. Scared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the follow up to day 3 eyyy

He’d only been to Paris once before, for a school trip back in high school, but he has to admit there’s something very different about the city this time around.

It’s still just a city, of course, but waking up in that comfortable little bed with the pale light of very early morning drifting in through the gossamer curtains, curled around the love of his life—well, it’s vastly different from waking up in a cheap hotel in a bedroom with 3 other boys who he hadn’t even been friends with.

He’d watched her sleep for a quiet moment when he first woke, mind wandering across the years, recalling every time he’d done this very thing. There had been such sadness about it before, an ache in his heart when he thought about how every time might be the last—she could meet the love of her life tomorrow, and he’d not get to be like this with her anymore.

It’s amazing how silly that feels now, looking back on it.

Sometimes Julian wants the power to go back in time, to tell himself about what kind of life he’d have. Or maybe he’d like the ability to bring his younger self here, to see the way she loves him, deep and full and so, so sweet. To hear the way she laughs into his kisses, the way her voice sounds when it’s hoarse from how well he’d loved her the night before. To see how she leans into his every touch, sighs her affection into his lips, runs her fingers through his hair.

Everything he’s ever wanted is lying sound asleep in the bed beside him, wearing one of his t-shirts as a nightgown, one hand resting lightly over his arm draped over her stomach.

She’s so beautiful that it hurts a little to untangle himself from her, sliding out from under the warm covers and brushing a featherlight kiss over her temple as he pulls away.

Finding his pants from wherever he’d tossed them the night before proves a little more difficult than he’d expected, to the point that he just goes to dig out a new pair from the drawer before he pads out into the living room.

Nox’s father’s apartment that he’s letting them use for the week is much nicer than—well, than any apartment Julian has ever seen in his life. It’s easy to forget that Nox comes from money, as down to earth as she is, as humble as she lives, but there’s no forgetting it in this place. The furniture is immaculate, the architecture is a bit older and very beautiful. The terrace outside of the living room is the kind he’d never actually seen up close, with twisting wrought iron railing and flower pots everywhere.

There’s nothing _in_ the flower pots at the moment, as Ravan Pendragon is currently spending most of his time in Milan, but Julian can almost imagine the blooms in the spring.

If they could swing it, he thinks maybe he’d like the next place they live to be something more like this—cozy and romantic.

His mind continues to wander as he starts breakfast, drifting to the little velvet box he can _feel_ sitting in his laptop case.

Julian isn’t sure when or where he’s going to pop the question yet, but today is their one year anniversary.

It’s time.

Or, at least, it _feels_ like a good time. He’s wanted to marry her for—hell, probably since he was about 24, if not before that. He’s 30 now, has had the ring for about the same amount of time they’ve been living together—had explained to her father over the winter holidays last year he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, had even shown him his sketches for ring designs, and Ravan had quite enthusiastically offered to have it made by his own private jeweler.

He suspects that Ravan also suspects what this trip is really about, beyond just giving Nox a nice little vacation right before work starts to pick up again with the next season of Unsolved: Supernatural to film.

...actually, he has a feeling that a lot of people are expecting him to propose this week, even the people he hadn’t told about his plan. Which is pretty much everyone, save for Li, who had helped him figure out what he wanted to say ( _after_ he’d said, “ _You’re the best man_ — _i_ _t’s your job to help me!_ ” and Li had nearly started crying because Julian hadn’t _asked him yet_ , apparently. Whoops.)

He’s almost done with her omelet when he hears the quiet sound of footsteps, and she yawns as she slips her arms around his waist, burying her face in the back of his shirt and going still.

“Hmm, smells good,” she sighs, voice muffled by his shirt.

Julian raises an eyebrow, tilting his head a little as he says, “You know, you’re ruining my plan to serve you breakfast in bed.”

She laughs, and her hands trail up his stomach to rest on his chest as she peeks around his arm. “You know, I _can_ get _back_ in bed.”

He chuckles, putting her food on a plate before setting the pan off of the burner and turning in her arms, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead. “The fact that you’re out of bed at all means I must not have done as good of a job as I thought last night.”

Nox giggles, shaking her head. “No, it took me two tries to stand up straight. You’re just as good as always.” She presses up on her tiptoes expectantly, and he meets her halfway with a quiet sigh.

“I’m surprised you let me touch you at all,” he mumbles, kissing her again. “Usually you don’t like to do things in strange places.”

“The room we’re staying in is not my father’s bedroom, and since he has no maid service,” she explains lightly, “I plan on washing everything thoroughly before we head back to the States. My issue with hotels is I don’t want other people cleaning up my mess. No middle man, no problem.”

Smirking down at her, they sway a little on the spot as he asks, “Does that mean we might be able to have some more fun tonight?”

“Mm,” she hums, pulling him down for another kiss. “It means you should count on it—unless, of course, you wear me out with whatever you have planned for the day.”

“Hmm, well, in that case,” he starts airily, running his fingers lightly down her spine and watching her shiver a little. “I was going to bring you your breakfast in bed, and then ideally we’d stay in bed until at least 2.”

“At _least_ ,” she agrees.

“After that I thought we’d have lunch, do a little sightseeing. Then, if you wanted, I thought we could grab dinner and go dancing.”

Her eyes light up, and she bounces a little on the balls of her feet, grinning widely. “Ohh, dancing? So this’ll be a real, proper date then.”

“It’s our anniversary,” he says flatly, reaching up to brush his fingers against her cheek. “It’s arguably one of the most important days of my entire life. Of _course_ , I’m taking you on a real, proper date.”

Nox turns and presses a kiss to his fingers, reaching up to hold his hand to the side of her face with a quiet little contented sigh.

“I love you,” she tells him, and his cheeks feel suspiciously warm as her pretty golden eyes flutter open to look up at him.

“I love you, too.” He leans down and gives her one more kiss, before he pushes her away and says, “Now go lay back down and let me worship you a little.”

“When you put it like _that_ —” she starts mischievously, but he just nudges her away as her fingers reach for his waistband.

 _“Go!”_ he laughs, and she dances away, laughter ringing through the apartment.

For a moment, his heart feels so full he’s afraid he might up and start floating away, and he’s so in love with her he doesn’t know what to do with all of it, letting out a shaky breath and shaking his hands a few times.

 _Tonight_.

 

* * *

 

Nox spends the entire night hanging off of his arm, pressed up against his side, voice low and smooth (and _unbearably_ sexy, if he’s being honest). She holds his hand the whole time they’re out on the streets, and when they get to the restaurant, she asks him to request one of those round booths so that she can sit right next to him, thigh to thigh under the table.

It’s lucky, he thinks as her hand lands innocently on his thigh, that he’d had enough forethought to stick the little velvet box in his jacket pocket and not his pants.

They’d both dressed up nice for their date tonight, and while he’d been properly dazed when she came out of the bathroom a few hours ago in that stunning red dress, he’s dazed all over again when she slides her coat off and sits beside him. Her lips are painted a deep, dark red, and the gold around her eyes highlights her golden irises in the candlelight, mesmerizing him with how ethereally beautiful she is.

When the waiter returns to get their orders, Nox props one elbow up on the table, resting her cheek in her palm, and watches his lips as he speaks. The waiter smirks at him when he stumbles over his own order, because Julian had accidentally caught sight of the _look_ in her eyes, and his ears burn when the man just winks and says he’ll bring them more wine.

“Your voice is so unbelievably sexy when you speak other languages, have I ever mentioned that?” she asks conversationally, taking a sip of water.

He chokes a little on the drink he’d been taking, coughing as he says, “You—might’ve mentioned it once or twice.”

She tilts her head, smiling at him, eyes shining with what he can only describe as pure, unabashed adoration. “You’re so beautiful, Ilya,” Nox murmurs, and she reaches up to brush his hair behind his ear. “Not just your face and your body, but your mind. You’re so incredibly intelligent and you’re always looking for something new to learn, some new skill to master. I love that about you.”

Julian is definitely blushing now, smiling bashfully, hiding behind his hair a little bit. “You’re _very_ sweet,” he mumbles after a beat, bumping his shoulder against hers. “Every time you say something like that, it’s… I don’t really know what to do with it. I’m not used to it, even now, 8 years after we first met. You’ve always treated me so well, and I’m still—learning how to accept it gracefully.”

She laughs a little, and she gently reaches out to curl her fingers under his chin, nudging until he’s close enough that she can plant a soft kiss on his lips.

“You’ll have as long as you like to figure it out,” she breathes into his mouth. As she pulls away, he leans after her a little bit, bewitched. “I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to.”

 _Ohh, there’s your opening, Devorak_ , he thinks, smiling, eyes dropping to her lips.

Sure, it’s barely the beginning of dinner, but the conversation has already veered towards _forever_ and it’s the perfect set up, really. He reaches out and grabs her hand resting on the table, tangling his fingers through hers and watching her smile, trying desperately to remember where he’d started with his speech, fighting the nervousness in his gut. He just needs to _say it_. It doesn’t matter if it’s pretty, he just needs to ask.

He opens his mouth, still smiling, and—

_“Will you marry me?”_

Nox blinks a few times, and his eyes widen as they both turn in their seats to look at the man on his knee on the other side of the room.

The other man at his table has his hands clasped over his mouth, and then he nods vigorously, cupping his new fiance’s cheeks and pulling him in for a kiss as the restaurant erupts into cheers.

Nox is smiling, and they both clap along with everyone else, but Julian can’t quite stop the sinking feeling in his gut, slumping a little in his seat. It’s certainly not that couple’s fault, but he can’t propose _now_. That would just be—lame.

“That was sweet,” Nox says lightly, reaching for another piece of bread as their own little moment seems to have passed.

“It was,” Julian agrees flatly. He’s still got the rest of the night, but the wind has gone out of his sails a little bit.

Well, proposing during dinner is a bit cliche anyway, isn’t it? Not that he doesn’t enjoy the classics, but surely after a night of dancing—it’d be a better story anyway, wouldn’t it? And doesn’t Nox always like sweet proposal stories? She always comments on good ones, ones that are thoughtful and give the couple a good story to tell.

It’d be a better story to propose on the dance floor, he thinks.

Yeah. That’ll be better than a silly dinner proposal anyway.

...right?

 

* * *

 

They lose themselves in the music, once they finally make it to the jazz club he’d found.

They haven’t danced properly like this in years, having stopped their couples’ dance classes when they started filming for Unsolved, both too busy and too worried that people might _assume_ something. After they’d gotten together, well, they’d mostly just… never gotten around to picking it back up.

But the way they move together, easy and natural as breathing—it looks like they didn’t need any more lessons anyway.

They move across the dance floor together with an ease he hadn’t expected, and she follows his lead effortlessly, laughing as he twirls her out and back into his arms. She’s practically glowing with joy, radiant and full of life, and he feels a bit like he must look the same way as they laugh together, moving to the music and enjoying being close to each other. At some point, the floor seems to clear a little bit for the two of them, as they move to a faster song, giving themselves over to the rhythm and letting it lead them where it pleased.

There’s a moment where he remembers the one lift they’d learned, and as they near the end of the song, she twirls back into his arms and he catches her by the waist, leaning in close to murmur, “Trust me?”

Nox nods, laughing, as she says, “With my life!”

That answer makes his already flushed face a little more red, and he lifts her by the waist, tossing her up into the air and catching her easily, before spinning and dropping her back in a dip, supporting her with his leg and his arms as she clutches at his shoulders and tosses her head back in mirth.

For a breathless moment, they’re suspended like that together, and it’s like magic, the feeling flowing through his veins.

He loves her, more than she’ll ever know, and he can’t quite help himself as he tightens his grip and brings his lips down on hers in a passionate kiss.

Julian only barely registers the sound of the crowd cheering as he straightens back up, because she pulls him in for another kiss once she’s found her balance again, pressing up as far as she can on her toes to bring her mouth back to his. He laughs into her kiss, and when she lets him pull away again, he takes a dramatic step back, bending low in a bow to press a kiss to the back of her hand.

His pulse is rushing in his ears, and they’re both panting, but the way she steps right back up to him when he straightens again, using his grip on her hand to pull his hand to her lips, too…

He _loves her_.

“Let’s take a break!” she calls over the music as another song starts up. “Grab some water!”

He nods, and they stumble back over to their table, giggling as they go.

It’s a bit quieter over here, and as nonchalantly as he can, he feels around the jacket hung on the back of his chair, making sure the ring box is still there. Nox leans heavily on his shoulder as she catches her breath, nursing a glass of ice water as she tries to calm her breathing. The feeling has something warm blossoming in his chest, and he grins mischievously as he fakes a yawn, stretching until his arm has settled around her shoulders—she giggles into his shirt as he pulls her closer, shaking her head.

“Smooth move, Casanova,” she says into his ear.

“Thank you. I saw that in a movie once.”

She just chuckles, burying her face in his shirt.

They sit like that for another song or two, just breathing and rehydrating. His hand makes little figures against the bare skin of her shoulder, and one of her hands lands on his thigh under the table.

 _Now_ , he thinks, turning to press a kiss to her hair. This quiet moment is his chance.

“Hey,” he murmurs against her hair, and she hums softly. “I actually… wanted to—”

—he’s interrupted for the second time tonight.

It’s a woman this time, standing at the microphone, and he realizes with a pang that it’s the DJ.

When she speaks, it’s in French.

 _“Jules,”_ she begins, and Julian winces a little, even though he knows she’s not talking to him. A spotlight finds a shock of platinum blond hair in the crowd, and her partner has their hands cupped to their mouth. “ _Jules, we met at that bar five years ago. Five years ago today, in about twenty minutes, I fell in love with you. We met here, we fell in love here, we’ll stay in love here. You told me once that you always dreamed of spending your life dancing, and that was why you came here. You said all the most wonderful moments of your life have been here_ — _your first job was here, you got into university here. Now I’m here, and I’m going to give you hopefully another good memory here._

_Jules, my dearest love, will you do me the honor of making me your wife?”_

Jules exclaims a very loud and enthusiastic _yes_ as they rush to join their fiancee on stage, pulling her in for a kiss as the crowd cheers.

Nox giggles as she settles a little farther into his side, apparently perfectly content to just sit. “Another proposal?” she guesses, and when he hums, she sighs softly. “My, what a night for love, hmm?”

“Mhm.”

He swallows a little thickly as he presses another kiss to the top of her head, and suddenly the nervous feeling in his stomach isn’t so much a _nervous_ feeling as it is plain _worry_. That proposal, while short and sweet, has him rethinking all of his plans entirely. Sure, this trip is romantic, and it’s their anniversary, but it’s not very personal, is it?

It’s a bit… boring. Done before. Cliche.

What if Nox thinks that he didn’t _try_ to think of something original? That he just threw some money around and hoped it would be ‘romantic’ enough for her to say yes? That he didn’t care enough about her to be more creative?

And, are they moving too fast? That couple has been together for _five years_ and yeah, he’s been in love with Nox for probably at least 6 or 7 years now, but they’ve only been together a _year_. Is she going to think that they’re moving too fast? She’d been worried about—about their sex life, after they moved in together. She said it hadn’t been about the move, even though it had only been three months in, but hadn’t it been though? At least a little bit?

Is—Is all of this just _stupid_ of him?

Is he going to ruin this before it’s even really started?

“...Ilya?”

He blinks, taking a shaky breath as his girlfriend’s voice shakes him out of his spiraling thoughts. She tilts her head to look up at him, and he does his best to smile.

“Yes, my love?”

Nox smiles warmly, leaning in to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Why don’t we get out of here soon? I’m getting tired, and we haven’t gotten to make out even a little bit yet.”

He laughs a little, even through the sudden anxiety making his throat tight, and he nods. “Whatever you want, darling.”

Her grin turns mischievous and she reaches up to brush his hair out of his eye as she asks, “Does ‘whatever I want’ include _you_?”

He snorts. “Of course it does. You can have me however you want, wherever you want, _when_ ever you want…”

“...for as long as I want?”

“Hm. _Always_. As long as you'll have me.”

 

* * *

 

They end up on the terrace when they get back to the apartment. He’d only undressed far enough to have his shirt hanging loosely around his shoulders, distracted when the clock strikes midnight, and the Eiffel Tower lights up a glittering, golden marvel in the middle of the city. Nox sidles up to him when he calls for her, ducking under his arm until she’s pressed between him and the railing.

He’d given her his suit jacket on the way home, and she hugs it close around her shoulders now as he slides his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as they watch the lights.

The little velvet box is in his pants pocket now, and he makes sure to keep his hips positioned so she can’t feel it, as she leans back into his embrace.

“This is the best gift anyone has ever given me,” she says softly after a moment. “Truly, I am having—the best time, Ilya. Honestly. The view, the atmosphere, the dancing, the— _everything_.” She turns and kisses his cheek sweetly. “I love you. I love that I get to be here with you. I’m so glad I stopped _fighting_ this.”

He snorts, grinning wryly as he keeps his eyes on the tower.

“I’m glad I’m not too terribly disappointing,” he sighs, and she groans.

“ _Ilya_ ,” Nox grumbles, pressing her forehead against his temple, and he sighs, burying his face in her shoulder.

“Sorry...”

“You’ve never been a disappointment,” she tells him fiercely. “Not once. Not ever. In fact, you keep blowing me away with how wonderful you are at—at _everything_. You’ve been surprising me from the moment we met. That’s not a bad thing.”

He wants to laugh at that a little bit, wondering if she’d say the same if he dropped to his knee right now, but this isn’t the mood he wants to be in for that. Plus, he’s not even sure about asking her anymore, and popping the question while basically trying to prove that he’s capable of being disappointing is just…

Nox turns in his arms, away from the tower as she wraps her arms around him, trailing a line of kisses up the side of his throat. “You’ve been taking care of me all day, baby. Will you let me take care of you now?”

He pulls back just enough to press his forehead to hers with a shaky exhale, closing his eyes tight.

She threads her fingers into his hair gently as she murmurs, “I don’t know what’s made you so upset, but let’s not end tonight on a sour note, okay? I love you, so, _so_ much, and we’ve been together a whole _year_. We’ll have many, many more years to come, I know, but I think it’s still cause to celebrate, don’t you? And you’ve been so wonderful, Ilya—I want to worship you, too.”

Goosebumps prickle across his flesh, and he shudders as he whispers her name into the space between them. She pulls him into a kiss, firm and warm, and he melts into her, pouring his love into their kiss, because he doesn’t quite know how to say it without stumbling. Nox makes a quiet noise into his mouth as he deepens the kiss, and he wants somehow to make this last forever. Just feeling her kiss him back, feeling her pull him closer, touching him like she can’t get _enough_ —

It doesn’t feel real, even now.

Every feverish kiss she returns with as much enthusiasm as he gives, her fingers digging into his shoulders just like his fingers dig into her back as she arches against him, teeth sinking into his lower lip. He can’t _breathe_ , he loves her so much, he can’t believe she wants him back, that she loves him back, that this isn’t a _joke_ or a _dream_.

“Ilya,” she gasps, laughing breathlessly as he moves his kisses to her neck. “ _Please_. Let’s go to bed so I can love you the way you _deserve_.”

The sound he makes against her is a little bit pitiful, but she just giggles and starts pushing him backwards gently, until he stumbles away, grinning at the excitement in her eyes as she dances around him, grabbing him by the wrists and dragging him towards the bedroom.

He loves her _so much_.

Someday, he’ll give her that ring. He’ll figure out the perfect location, the perfect phrasing, the perfect timing. Everything will fall into place, and maybe—if he’s lucky—maybe she’ll want to marry him, too.

And he’ll give her the happily ever after she deserves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4200 words,,, we officially hit 25k words with this chapter lmao
> 
> this is also my favorite thing i've written this month i think ;w;


	14. Flowers

Nox is allergic to most kinds of flowers.

It’s not usually a very big deal, as long as she’s not around any for an extended period of time, though it does get a bit dicey in the summer, but it does mean that his options for Valentine’s Day are a little more limited than they’d been in the past.

It takes him a while to actually figure out what he wants to get her, in the end. There were chocolates, of course, but that was a given _—_ plus, they were planning to go and buy a bunch of candy at half price the day afterwards, anyway. He’d get her a box the day of, just for the sake of it, but that wasn’t enough to be the _entire_ present.

It’s their _first_ Valentine’s Day, after all.

They’ve been together almost six months now, and they live together already, which are two things that he’d never thought he’d be able to say. She’s already said she doesn’t want to really go anywhere that day, that she’d rather spend time with him at home, where she can kiss him as much as she wants and not have a bunch of onlookers.

Without the date, that narrows his options even more, to the point that he’s almost reduced to jewelry _—_ but that feels distant, impersonal. He wants to give her something _special_ , something to show her how much he loves her. She likes flowers, and he had gotten her some hypoallergenic ones last month that she seemed to love a lot (they’re still clinging to their last shreds of life on their kitchen table, actually, after Nox had put a preservation spell on them).

But those will wither and die eventually, and he feels like that’s a bit _—_ well, his love certainly won’t _wither and die_ , so he needs something to reflect that.

He’s doodling in his sketchpad at his desk when it hits him.

She’s allergic to flowers, but he could still give her an everlasting bouquet.

He just has to _draw it_.

 

He’s not the best with colors, he discovers within the first few hours of trying to paint her something nice. Usually, he works with charcoal or ink or pencil _—_ he’s never actually really tried painting before, but… they’re _flowers_. There needs to be _some_ color, doesn’t there?

On top of his growing pile of scrapped pieces, trying to keep her from _seeing_ what he’s making her is growing increasingly more difficult, to the point where he actually throws himself bodily over the desk at one point and, “ _No_ , you _can’t look at this_ , I’m _making_ your _present—go away!”_

To which Nox had responded with laughter, but she still left the bedroom anyway to go play video games in the living room.

Eventually, he decides _to hell with it_ , and just settles on an ink drawing, because he’d rather it look good than be colorful. Surely, the fact that he made it will at least somewhat overwrite the boringness of a black and white drawing…

...right?

 

* * *

 

Julian wakes up late on Valentine’s Day, as it had fallen on a Saturday this year and, well… they’d stayed up late the night before. He’s not extremely surprised to find that his girlfriend isn’t in bed beside him when he rolls over, but he is a little curious about where she went. She rarely ever gets up before him, especially on weekends, so _where…_?

It takes him another few minutes to talk himself into getting out of bed, a little slow to wake with the rain pattering softly against the window. When he does, he doesn’t even try to tame his bed head, instead just padding out into the living area to find _—_

 _—_ a new bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table, with a card sticking out of it and “ _Ilya_ <3” written in gold, looping script on the front of it.

Nox is also standing at the stove, in the middle of apparently making them breakfast.

“Nox?” he asks softly, walking over to touch one of the petals delicately. They’re all hypoallergenic flowers, but… “Are these for me?”

“Is the card with your name on it not enough of a clue?”

His cheeks are warm as he plucks the card from the little holder, opening it to read what she’s written on the inside.

 

_Ilya,_

_I’ve never quite believed in soulmates in the traditional sense. I don’t believe either of us are one part of a whole, but… there’s something about you that I can’t explain. Being with you feels inexplicably tied to my health at this point, and maybe that’s unhealthy, but I don’t think I care. You’ve been there for me for years, through so many ups and downs, and at the end of the day?_

_At the end of the day, I am more in love with you now than I ever thought it was possible to be in love with another person._

_I want this to last forever. I want to be with you, to be beside you, to make you laugh every day. I want to kiss you, and run my fingers through your hair, and make you grin that crooked, nose-wrinkling grin you only do when you’re Really Happy._

_You’re my best friend. My person. I’m so unbelievably glad that, of all of time and space, of all the lives I could’ve had, I got to exist at the same time as you, to love you, to be with you._

_I love you._

_Happy Valentine’s Day!_

_Yours always,_

_Nox~_

 

He doesn’t realize his eyes have welled up until a tear drips down onto the card, and he wipes it away before it can smear the ink, reaching up to wipe at his eyes with a sniffle.

“Are you okay?” Nox’s voice asks softly, and he laughs.

“No one’s ever _—_ given me flowers before. Or written me anything quite like this.” He grins at her as she wanders over to him, sliding her arms around his waist as she smiles at him. “You’re so wonderful, do you know that? I don’t deserve you.”

“Incorrect _—_ you deserve _everything_ you want, _including_ me,” she says seriously, burying her face in his chest. “I love you, and I’m sorry I couldn’t think of anything more… I don’t know. I know the flowers aren’t much, but it sort of snuck up on me a little bit.”

“Nonsense,” he murmurs, scoffing a little. “That’s the most wonderful valentine I’ve ever gotten, Nox. Really.”

He leans down and kisses her softly then, laughing into her lips when she pulls him right back down when he goes to pull away.

“ _Nox_ ,” he laughs, disentangling himself while she whines quietly. “I need to go get you _your_ present! Let go for just a _minute—_ ”

“Hurry _up_ so we can eat and then I can kiss you rotten.”

Julian shakes his head as he half jogs back into the bedroom, pulling out the drawer of his nightstand to grab the finished, framed piece of art he’d made for her. He’s a little nervous about it now, because it’s not _—well_ , it’s maybe not quite as romantic as her card.

When he steps back out into the living room, Nox is practically bouncing in place, trying to look over the top of the frame before he’s reached her. He chuckles as he hands it to her, one hand immediately flying to the back of his neck the moment his hands are free.

“I… know how hard it is for you to receive bouquets, so I thought… well, I thought I’d give you one that wouldn’t aggravate your allergies and, you know… wouldn’t ever... die? Because it’s, um…” _Oh, this is much harder than I thought it would be_. “Uhhh, I love you?”

Nox giggles at him, golden eyes sparkling, and she looks so happy that his cheeks hurt with how wide his smile grows. “Ilya, this is beautiful! You drew this?”

“I _—_ yeah. Yeah, I drew it. Do you like it?”

She raises an eyebrow at him, closing the space between them so she can grab the front of his shirt and pull him in for a kiss. “Of course, I like it. I love it, in fact. It’s one of the best, most thoughtful, most _meaningful—_ I’m hanging it up over my desk so I can look at it all the time.”

“The blue flowers glow in the dark.”

“ _What?!_ ” Her face somehow lights up even more, as she pulls the picture close to her face, cupping her hand to try and see. It apparently works, because she gasps, and, laughing, says, “This is fantastic! Ilya!”

And with that, she sets the frame down haphazardly on the kitchen table and launches herself at him, jumping to wrap her arms around his shoulders and kiss him solidly on the mouth as he struggles to catch her, arms around her waist. She kicks her feet up as he holds her, and they both giggle into the kiss as he spins them around a few times.

“I love you,” she tells him again as he sets her down.

“I love you, too.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

He grins, leaning down for one more kiss before they pull away to eat.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, my dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nya really making me work for their satisfaction,, they are apparently gonna get a novel out of me this month


	15. Zodiac

How they got onto this topic, exactly, Nox isn’t really sure.

She thinks it has something to do with the way Adore had groaned about it being _Gemini season_ at work earlier, apparently after Asra had looked her dead in the eye while putting hot sauce on what she’s pretty sure was a peanut butter sandwich during lunch. Julian had just laughed about it, unsure of what the time of the month had to do with Asra’s antics beyond the fact that everyone gets a little more wild around their birthdays, don’t they? Isn’t that just human nature?

The look of disbelief and barely disguised disgust on Adore’s face had nearly had Nox’s drink coming out of her nose.

Nox hadn’t thought too much of the interaction at the time, though, quickly sucked back into work afterwards. It’s not until they’re at home and trying to unwind that Julian brings the conversation back up.

“Do you… believe in all of that astrology mumbo jumbo, too?” he asks curiously as she sits curled up against his side.

She laughs a little, tilting her head to look up at him. “I take it from the way you phrased it that you _don’t_?”

“Not… really? It seems like a lot of very common human traits are assigned to the sign and then, because you’re _looking_ for similarities, you find them,” he says, making a face at her. “Not that I think anyone is _stupid_ or anything for believing in it, it just seems…”

“...too convenient?”

“Yeah!”

Nox shrugs. “I dunno what I believe, really, but I _do_ know that, according to the stars, we are literally just made for each other.”

Though she isn’t looking at him, she can almost _feel_ the way he’s blinking at her, and it makes a grin start to tug at her mouth.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want me to go get my astrology chart book?”

“You have an astrology chart book?”

She laughs, standing up off the couch and pressing a kiss to the side of his head as she passes him. “I’m a magician, love—why _wouldn’t_ I have an astrology chart book?”

She could just look it up on the internet, of course, but Julian’s a bit picky about how he receives new information like that. She’s pretty sure he’d just write it off if she pulled up one of the many websites available, but if it’s coming out of a giant, leather bound tome, well…

He’s slightly more likely to at least give it a chance.

She has to carry it with both arms as she walks back into the living room with it, as it’s old and heavy. His eyes widen when he catches sight of it, and he grunts a little as she passes it off to him for a moment as she sits back down.

“This is…”

“A lot? Yeah,” Nox agrees with a chuckle, pulling the book into her lap.

She flips it open to the last page she’d had open, which—was actually the section on Scorpio’s compatibility with other signs. She hadn’t touched this thing since before she and Julian had gotten together, but she had been… curious, before they started dating.

She reads off a few different things for him under the section on Pisces compatibility, but when she glances up at him, he just looks a little lost. Sighing softly, she hands him the book again, sitting up on her knees to lean over his shoulder as she paraphrases the slightly archaic language.

“This bit about sexual compatibility is wrong, because it says that Scorpio tends to be 'too rough' on their 'sensitive' Pisces partner,” she murmurs, and Julian actually laughs at that.

“I’d obviously have no complaints about that, if it were true.”

She hums, grinning a little. “Yeah. The sexual traits Scorpio gets assigned are almost all wrong for me, so this is one of those things to take with a grain of salt. We are a bit—not very sexually compatible, though, right? So it fits.”

Julian sighs, shaking his head. “I leave the bedroom extremely satisfied every time you touch me, so I don’t know _what_ you’re talking about. If we were that incompatible, wouldn’t we be having _bad_ sex?”

“...I guess, yeah.”

“I hope you’re aware that I’m going to keep telling you how much I love being able to touch you at all, and how incredibly fulfilling it is just to be near you until you believe me,” he tells her seriously, and he grins when she starts to smile a little more.

Sighing, Nox moves on to the next part. “This wall of text here basically says that our communication skills are top notch, which, frankly, I really agree with. Despite the fact that it took us so long to admit we were in love—you’ve been my best friend for years for a reason.”

“We _are_ very good at talking things through.”

Grinning, Nox nuzzles his jaw as she says, “The next part is my favorite because, did you know, emotionally, we are on the exact same level? Our emotional compatibility is literally one of the deepest of all the signs.” She grins, and her breath must be tickling his ear, because he laughs lightly, squirming a little in her grip. “You’re sweet and ready to face _all_ of the emotions I have, and I’m the same way with you. You’re an ocean and I’m the river flowing into you. Or something.”

He giggles, and Nox is positively enchanted with the sound as he snickers, “Is that a scientific analogy?”

She pokes at his side, and he laughs more, trying to wiggle out of her grasp as she says, “No, silly, it’s a _magical_ analogy—keep up, Devorak.”

“My bad— _my bad!”_ he wheezes, finally catching her wrists as she leans in and presses a kiss to his grinning lips.

Kissing him a few more times, Nox sighs, “According to this astrology _mumbo jumbo_ , our love is written in the stars, Ilya.”

He chuckles. “So it would seem.”

“It’s meant to be.”

“Hm. _Good_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOOOOAAA WE'RE HALFWAY THEEEEERRREE WHOOOAA-OOOHHH LIVIN' ON A PRAYER~
> 
> day 15 give it up for day 15 im starting to really feel the strain of 25,000+ words in 2 weeks


	16. Hands

When they’re having a bad day, sometimes they just lay in bed and hold hands.

They’ll curl up close to each other, foreheads pressed together as they fight the heaviness together. Sometimes they kiss, sometimes they hold each other tight when it gets a little too much for just hands to help, but mostly they just—touch each other, to remind themselves that this is real, that they’re not alone, that things really are okay.

She matches up their hands every now and then, stretching her fingers as far as they can go just to see how much bigger his hands are still. She’d always thought he had beautiful hands, with those long, graceful fingers. They’re a bit calloused, because he’d been playing guitar more often since he moved in, but she likes that about them. It gives them character, a texture that she can’t get enough of when he touches her.

Nox can feel him watching her as she fiddles with his fingers, threading hers through his, and then pulling away again to trace the lines in his palm. His hands are usually cold, and today is no different, as she wraps her hand around his wrist, pulling his hand to her mouth. Her eyes flutter shut as she presses soft kisses to the tips of his fingers, one-by-one.

He’s blushing when she finally looks at him, pressing another kiss to his knuckles. She brings his hand to her cheek, nuzzling into his palm as a smile tugs at her lips, because maybe love can’t cure you of all your problems, but it’s sure as hell giving her something much nicer to focus on.

“You’re incredible.”

His hoarse voice breaks the heavy sense of stillness that had settled over them when they woke. They’d both woken up on the metaphorical wrong side of the bed, both feeling out of sorts, depression and stress making them both tired and achy.

 _At least it’s the weekend_ , Nox had thought as they’d both immediately pulled the covers tighter and fallen back to sleep for a few more hours. They didn’t have anywhere to be or anything that needed their immediate attention for once, and they were going to milk that for all it was worth while they could.

“Am I?” she sighs after a moment, letting go of his hand as he moves to run it through her hair.

He tilts his head, brushing a kiss to her brow as he strokes at her cheek with his thumb. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Her movements are lazy, slow and unhurried, as she turns her head to press a kiss to his palm. She squeezes his hand as she pulls away again, and her thumb runs over a tiny little scar on the side of his hand, on the meat of the muscle connecting his thumb to the rest of his hand.

Julian has told her about most of his scars, though most of them are just _I’m clumsy_ scars, but she’s not sure about this one as she pulls his hand closer.

“Is this a scar?”

He snorts, burrowing a little further into his pillow. “I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to notice it.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, massaging his hand as she smirks and says, “Sorry if I’m usually more focused on _where_ your hands are instead of what they look like.”

He grins, chuckling, and nods as he says, “You do seem to get a little lost in the way they _feel_.”

Under the blanket, his free hand brushes against the bare skin on her thigh, and she laughs, shaking her head.

“ _I_ _lya_ ,” she sighs, giggling as he leans in and kisses her lips gently. “Tell me about the scar _first_ —then you can put your hands on me.”

He laughs, a warm sound that sends heat washing across her skin. He’s obviously already feeling better, and to be honest, she is, too.

It’s amazing, really, the effect he has on her.

“It’s not a great story, really. You know how I’m scared of snakes?”

Nox frowns. “Wasn’t that because of the one that bit you on the nose when you were five?”

“In a way, yes. The problem is, I didn’t remember that that actually happened until the _second_ time I got bit by one of the slippery creatures.”

“What—how did you get bit a second time?”

His ears are red, and he pulls his hand away from her to scratch at his nose. “I… was babysitting Pasha and she found it behind the house. It needed to be moved and I was a stupid teenager and thought _I can do what all those people on the Science Channel do!_ And then I got bit and had to go to the ER.”

Nox tries her best not to laugh, but it doesn’t really work as she snorts into the pillow. “Oh, baby…”

“I may have done well in school,” he says with a sigh, “but I am not a very smart man.”

She laughs at that, leaning in to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. “That’s alright. We can be stupid together.”

Julian just snickers, as he slides a hand up the front of her shirt, walking his cool fingers against the soft skin on her stomach. Her cheeks burn as he leans in for a kiss, pausing only to murmur a few words into her lips.

“Sweet talker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a theory that julian is afraid of snakes bc of how he is the only person ever nervous around faust. this stems from when he was a little kid and picked up a garden snake because he thought it was a frog and cried because "this frog lost its legs!" 
> 
> it bit him and he was afraid of snakes forever after that sldkfj
> 
> (this is based on a fanart that i have not been able to find again from months and months ago now but yEAH)


	17. Death

To be entirely honest, Julian isn’t actually sure what he was expecting from asking Asra to do a tarot reading for him.

It’s not like he even really believes in the ‘art of divination’ or whatever. Tarot used to just be a card game at some point, and inanimate objects can’t see the future. _People_ can’t even see the future, and far be it from him to not believe that he’s in control of his own destiny. Were some things meant to be? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean the future is set in stone. He may be dating a very talented witch, who he’s seen do some truly remarkable things, but there are some things that are still too far out there, even for him.

Still, Asra had been offering people readings all day out of boredom and, well…

...Julian does have some _plans_ for this holiday season. He’s curious what the cards have to say, if anything.

Besides, Nox has gone to lunch with Adore, so he has nothing better to do.

Asra, as expected, has no intention of making this easy on him, smirking the second he makes eye contact with Julian as he wanders into the break room.

“Are you lost?” he asks smoothly, shuffling his cards.

Julian manages to grin, sliding into the seat across from him. “Actually, I’m not. I heard you were doing tarot readings.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff?”

Julian shrugs, crossing his arms on the table. “I don’t, really, but… I’m bored and I do have some plans coming up, so…”

Asra’s smirk turns into a grin as he guesses, “So you thought you’d see what the cards had to say about it?”

“Basically, yes.”

He hums, shuffling the deck in his hands again, and asks, “Do you want just one card? Or a full, three card reading?”

“...is one better than the other?”

“Not really. Three cards will say something more specific about what’s going on in your life than one card will.”

Julian blinks, watching as Asra spreads the cards out face down on the table in front of him. “I guess… we might as well do the three card reading?”

As just hums again, nodding towards the deck. “Pick three cards, then, and don’t flip them over yet.”

Julian reaches for the cards, only to hesitate before he touches them, looking up at Asra questioningly. “Is there some kind of… trick to it? Do I just pick any of them, or...?”

Asra smiles, resting his cheek on his palm. “Just pick the ones that call to you.”

Julian just blinks at him.

_...What the hell does that mean?_

He should’ve expected this going in, he thinks as he turns his attention back to the deck as his hand hovers hesitantly over the table. Asra’s always been a bit cryptic, and it’s not all that surprising that it’s worse when it comes to explaining his magic.

Not surprising, but that doesn’t mean Julian has to like it.

Running his hands over the spread, he doesn’t really feel much of anything. There’s not a tug in his gut, or a tingle in his fingers trying to direct him to any particular card, so after another beat, he just… grabs the cards his eyes are drawn to first. Asra clears the rest of the cards away, setting the three he’d picked in the order he’d picked them from left to right.

Asra goes to flip the first card over, and then hesitates.

“I’m assuming you’ve never had your fortune read like this before?”

Julian makes a face. “I mean, I think I might’ve had my fortune read once when I was really drunk back at university, but…”

Asra laughs a little, nodding. “Close enough. So, this card I’m getting ready to flip over is in the past position. It basically tells you what your current situation is based on.”

“Okay.”

Asra flips it over, and Julian actually recognizes the picture on the card.

“The Lovers,” he and Asra say simultaneously, and when Asra raises an eyebrow at him, he coughs. “I’ve… seen that one before.”

Grinning, Asra nods again. “What this means is that your current situation is founded on love. It usually represents a past love for most people, but,” he pauses, eyes widening as he inhales sharply and makes a face, “considering you and Nox have been dancing that particular dance for a _while_ , it’s more likely saying that your union is an important part of your identity, a central facet of your life.”

“So, this is a good thing,” Julian translates.

Asra shrugs. “Sure.”

Julian blinks at him blankly. “Such an enthusiastic answer.”

Asra just smiles wider, and flips over the middle card as he says, “In the present position, you drew… The Chariot.”

“Is _that_ good?”

“The Chariot represents momentum, charging towards some kind of victory. Things are going well, and it’s a good time to take control of your life.”

Oh, he likes that very much. Not that he _needs_ these cards to tell him that his life is going well, he’s well aware of that, but… it’s kind of nice to hear it from a third party.

...sort of, anyway.

Asra flips over the last card with a quiet sigh, and his jaw goes slack, while Julian’s heart drops straight through the floor.

“...Death.”

Julian’s stomach turns uncomfortably as Asra scratches at his head, frowning a little bit as he thinks about what to say. A solid fifteen seconds pass before Julian clears his throat and, hoarsely, says, “Well, _that’s_ not good.”

Asra makes another face at him. “Not necessarily? Death is—”

“— _death??_ Death is _death_. How could this mean anything but _bad_ —am _I_ going to die? Is that what this is—?”

“You’re not going to _die_!” Asra interrupts, rolling his eyes. “Death is a neutral card. In the future position, it’s not _great_ , yes, because it means some massive change is coming, but that’s not always a _bad_ thing. Something is coming to an end, so something new can begin.”

Julian slumps against the table, hands on his head as he stares down at the cards. _Something is coming to an end_ … That can only mean one thing, can’t it? He’s going to do something stupid and _ruin everything_ like he always has, except this time he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to forgive himself.

He can’t lose Nox.

He _can’t_.

Clearing his throat, hands shaking a little, he wets his lips as he asks, “Is there something I can do to… prevent this?”

Asra’s shaking his head already when he looks up, and Julian’s about ten seconds from crying right here in the middle of the breakroom.

“Whatever change is coming is pretty much inevitable, _but_ —” Asra holds a hand up when Julian opens his mouth again. He sighs, sounding very tired, as he says, “ _But_ , with these other two cards, I wouldn’t be too worried about it. It’s probably something good.”

“Like what?”

Asra shakes his head, shrugging helplessly. “I don’t know.”

Julian groans softly, rubbing roughly at his face and sliding a little further down in his chair for a beat, before he drops his hands back to his lap. “Thank you,” he says, standing and straightening his shirt just for something to do. “I’m… going back to my desk now.”

Asra snorts, and when Julian looks, he’s putting the cards back in his desk. “Anytime. And Julian?”

Julian pauses with the door in his hand, turning to look at Asra over his shoulder.

Asra smiles a little bit. “Try not to worry too much. The cards aren’t ever as straightforward as you think they are.”

That’s… not very reassuring, but he nods anyway.

“I’ll try.”

 

He really does try, but it really doesn’t work.

After Googling the Death card at his desk, and finding that Death in the future position means _the possible death of a relationship_ , it’s all he can do not to drop to his knees and start groveling when Nox finally gets back from lunch. She presses a kiss to the side of his head as she passes behind him, setting a slice of cake on his desk as a treat.

“How was your lunch?” he asks, and his voice is all wrong—too high and uncomfortable.

Nox looks at him curiously, eyes cataloging his features for a beat, before she smiles and says. “It was good. How was yours?”

“It was… boring. Uneventful.”

He can tell she doesn’t believe that at all, but she doesn’t push, settling in to do her work with a quiet, “That’s nice.”

Julian’s control over his own behavior is already slipping, and his palms are sweaty as he waits for 5 o’clock to roll around. He’s going to do his best not to fuck anything up, and when they get home, he’s going to wait on her hand and foot to make sure she feels loved.

And he’s going to keep doing that for the next month, because _god_ he wants to propose, and he can’t risk doing anything stupid _now_ —not when he’s so close to taking that step.

Not when everything he’s ever wanted is within reach.

 

* * *

 

Nox rounds on him the second they get home, pulling him in by the front of his shirt as she stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his cheek.

“What’s gotten into you?” she murmurs. “You’re acting weird.”

He tries his best to laugh it off, reaching up to pry her hands off the front of his shirt. “What do you mean? I’m completely normal.”

She holds tight to his hands to keep him from moving away, raising an eyebrow. “You insisted on carrying my things to the car, complimented me the whole way home, and ran to open both the car door and the apartment door for me,” she says flatly, smirking up at him. “What’s going on, Ilya?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” he protests, a bit too vehemently. He coughs uncomfortably when she just looks at him. “I just—want to be sweet on you. Is that a problem?”

Nox presses her lips together, brows drawn low as she squints up at him, eyes running over his features. He fidgets under her gaze, trying to look less guilty, but he can tell it's not working. Eventually, she says, “What happened while I was at lunch?”

He sighs heavily, finally withdrawing to go sit at the kitchen table. There’s no hiding anything from her—she knows him too well, and he doesn’t really want to hide anything from her anyway.

“Asra was doing tarot readings,” he begins hesitantly, as she walks closer and runs a hand through his hair.

She hums softly. “Hmm. What, did you get a bad reading?”

He groans, leaning forward to bury his face in her shirt. She wraps her arms around him immediately, almost cradling him as he grumbles, “I drew the Death card…”

“...so?”

Pulling away, he gapes up at her, almost offended by the nonchalant way she’d said that. “What do you mean ‘ _so’_?”

She laughs lightly, caressing his cheek. “Ilya, baby, the Death card isn’t a bad card. Was it upright, or reversed?”

“I… upright.”

“That just means you’ve got some change on the way. Nothing to necessarily be worried abou—”

“—but, the Death card in the future position means the _death_ of a _relationship_.”

Nox blinks, mouth forming a little ‘o’ as she apparently puts the pieces together. “Did _Asra_ tell you that? Or did _you_ say that and he didn't stop you? Because those are two very different situations, and two entirely different people I have to lecture about being nice to Julian.”

“I… well…”

“You jumped to conclusions,” she concludes, a smile playing around the corner of her lips.

He blushes, ears burning, as he says, “Well, Asra was very… cryptic. I looked it up afterwards—”

Nox shakes her head with a sigh. “Was it a three card reading?” she asks, and when he nods, she adds, “What were the other two?”

He scratches self-consciously at his nose as he clears his throat and says, “The Lovers and The Chariot…”

His girlfriend actually laughs at him then, giggling as she reaches up to rub at her face. “Ilya, I think all the cards were saying is that we’re about to take our relationship to a new level. And we are, because we’ve got that trip in a few weeks. That’s all.”

“It… doesn’t mean we’re going to break up?”

She snorts. “Even if it did, it’d be a load of crap. You’re not getting rid of me without a fight, I’m afraid.” She runs a hand through his hair again, leaning down to press a kiss to his lips. “You know, my sun sign’s assigned tarot is the Death card. Maybe it just means you have a lot of me in your future?”

...that sounds a lot better.

He wraps his arms around her waist, and she wraps hers around his shoulders as he leans in close and smiles up at her hopefully. “Do you think that’s what it means?”

Nox shrugs. “That, or, well… there is something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

His heart sinks again. “...oh?”

She grins at the look on his face, cupping his cheeks to press a kiss to his forehead. “Mhm. I was just… thinking, with the raise we just got, I don’t know… maybe we could start saving up for a house?”

Julian blinks a few times, and he’s a little dizzy with how fast his mood changes. She smiles down at him when he starts to grin, biting at his lower lip. “You… you want to buy a house? With me?”

His girlfriend giggles, and he laughs with her. “Of course! Who else would I buy a house with if not the love of my life?”

He’s not sure if this really was what the cards were talking about, but… well, they’re just cards, aren’t they? And no stupid cards are going to control his future.

Not with Nox by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know what tf im doing with writing asra OR writing tarot readings ljkdsf im sorry


	18. Cryptid Mashup

“Remind me, again, why I can’t dress up as the Mothman statue?”

Nox blinks at her boyfriend in the mirror, and she can tell by the look on his face that he’s absolutely not serious, but she sighs anyway, adjusting her seashell bikini top. “Because,” she begins, rounding on him to pull him closer by the belt loops, “the last time you wore something all-pleather, I found you overheating and about to pass out on the bathroom floor. I had to cut you out of it.”

He blushes, large, cool hands settling over the bare skin on her waist. “That was _one_ time, and _imagine_ how good it’ll look on me.”

“Ilya, I love your ass very much, but we are not taking a trip to the ER tonight, especially not with you in skin-tight gold pleather.” She sighs when he pouts, shaking her head. “Besides, your butt looks nice in these pants, too.”

He just raises an eyebrow, glancing down at his outfit—which is arguably less of an outfit and more just a pair of pants with a shiny, scaled pattern on them. “Do mermaids even count as cryptids?”

“Cade said they did when I asked.”

“Are you sure they didn’t just want to see _you_ in a mermaid costume?”

Nox laughs, shaking her head and pressing a kiss to the center of his bare chest. Casting a glance over her shoulder at her own reflection, she sighs and asks, “I think they wanted to see us _both_ in mermaid costumes, and can you blame them? These pants make my ass look fantastic.”

Julian seems to take that as an invitation, sliding his hands down from her hips to grab two handfuls as she giggles at him. Patting his chest lightly, she wiggles out of his grasp to go put the finishing touches on her makeup.

“Besides,” she says lightly, drawing a few more scales on her cheek, “we’re doing a couple’s costume. You can’t do Mothman because you _know_ Muriel is gonna be wearing _Bride of Mothman_ again.”

“Are you saying I couldn’t get Muriel?”

She snorts, shaking her head. “I’m saying Muriel isn’t allowed to have you. You’re mine, and I don’t share.”

He hums, pressing up against her back as he bends to press a kiss to the nape of her neck. Tilting his head until his lips brush her ear, she can feel him grin as he sucks in a hissing breath and murmurs, “I love it when you get possessive.”

“I’m glad my being a jealous bitch doesn’t turn you off.”

Julian laughs, meeting her gaze in the reflection. She’d already done his makeup, and the fake scales and eyeliner really do make his silver eyes pop. “I’ve never really _had_ anyone ever get jealous over me before, so I think it’s rather nice. Especially since it's _you_.”

As Nox finally finishes with her makeup, she straightens up again, though Julian just pulls her closer with a contented little sigh, pressing kisses to the side of her neck. She tilts her head for him with a quiet laugh, threading her fingers into the hair at the back of his head as she lets him do as he pleases for a moment.

His hands are starting to wander when she stops him, giggling, as she says, “We promised we’d show up to this party, Ilya. Cade flew all the way out here for it and they’d be sad if we missed it.”

He holds his hands up in surrender, laughing. “I know, I know. You just look _so_ sexy—”

Nox swats lightly at one of his hands as she brushes by him back out into the bedroom, snatching a flannel shirt off the dresser as she does. She puts it on, leaving it unbuttoned enough that people can still see her bathing suit top underneath as she tucks it in. Standing in front of the full length mirror, she puts a hand on her hip and tilts her head.

“What do you think?”

Julian had passed her to look for his weird, poofy-armed pirate shirt he had from years and years ago, and he pauses now to drink in her outfit, eyes dragging over her curves with more heat than was probably necessary.

“You look… beautiful, wonderful, _ravishing_ …” he pauses for dramatic effect, meeting her gaze as she smiles up at him, “and honestly just truly, very, _extremely_ hot.”

“Mmm, you don’t look half bad yourself, handsome,” she sighs, drifting over to wrap her arms around his waist and press another kiss over his heart where his shirt is still open.

“You think everyone else will like our lazy mermaid costumes?”

“They’d better, because I’m not dressing up as Bigfoot.”

Julian laughs, tossing his head back in mirth. “You’d be the world’s smallest Bigfoot, if you did.”

“So a chimpanzee, then.”

That makes him laugh more, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips. “I love you.”

“Let’s go before everyone’s taken all the good candy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cade belongs to a good friend of mine who has always been v supportive of Nox and who also helped me figure out what to do with this prompt ;w;


	19. Angel

Julian never really considered himself a cuddler, even in the loosest definition of the word. Touch starved? Maybe, but that didn’t mean he was craving _cuddles_ necessarily—just physical affection in general, which Nox was always happy to provide, kissing him soundly pretty much _whenever_ he was in reach.

Sure, they held hands and slept close to each other, even when they were filming, but that was just a little bit of cuddling. Normal couple stuff. He didn’t think he needed much more than that.

Until he caught a cold, for the first time in— _years,_ probably.

He knows it’s going to be a bad day when he wakes up, two entire hours early, because he can’t breathe through his nose. His entire body aches as he tries to sit up, a rush of vertigo making him fall heavily back onto the pillow with a groan. His throat aches, and his chest hurts, and _ugh_ —

Nox wakes up from the jostling of the bed, reaching out blindly and patting his shoulder with a quiet, “You okay?”

He sniffles miserably, groaning again. “‘M _sick_.”

That seems to wake her up more, because the next thing he’s aware of is the light being switched on, and his girlfriend running her fingers through his sweaty bangs—and he’s suddenly absolutely positive he’s got a fever, because where her fingers usually feel hot against his skin, they feel cool now.

“You’re burning up,” she comments quietly. When all he does is sniffle again, she sighs and says, “Guess we get a three-day weekend after all."

“They’re gonna accuse me of faking,” he mumbles unhappily rubbing at his nose.

“Ilya, you’ve never faked sick for work a day in your life. I doubt they’re going to think you’re starting now.”

He laughs, but the sound just comes out kind of sad as he starts coughing because of it. “They will if you stay home with me.”

“Well, that’s too bad. I’m not leaving you alone like this,” she says idly, and when he pries his eyes open again, he finds her on her phone, tapping away at the screen.

“Nox, I really don’t need you to—“

“—hush, love. I’m gonna take care of you whether you like it or not.” She pauses to grin at him, “But you will like it. You’ll be feeling better in no time when I’m through with you.”

He just rolls towards her, looking for the cool spot on the pillow, and sniffles again, moaning softly. Her hand runs through his hair, starting up a rhythm that seeps the little bit of restless, uncomfortable energy out of his body before he can even think to fight it.

 

* * *

 

When he wakes up again, the sun is up, and there’s a wet washcloth pressed to the side of his face. Nox smiles when she sees that he’s conscious, rubbing his back where he’s laying on his stomach.

“Hey, baby,” she breathes. “How are you feeling?”

He tries to catalogue what aches and what doesn’t through the fog in his brain, but all he can really come up with after a moment is, “...bad.”

She laughs quietly, pulling the wet washcloth away to hold it in her hand for a moment. He thinks he sees her hand glow, and when she puts it back, this time on the back of his neck, it’s cool again, and he sighs softly.

“I’m going to make you some soup,” she says after a minute. “And afterwards I’ll draw you a bath. The steam will help your head and the hot water will help with the aches.”

He’s not sure if he can stomach even soup, but he knows that he needs to eat, so he just nods, humming through the haze. The ghost of a smile pulls at his lips as she drops a kiss on the side of his head before climbing out of bed to go cook.

He tries to stay awake, he really does, but the vertigo has him closing his eyes tight almost immediately. It doesn’t take long, laying underneath the heavy comforter that Nox must have gotten down some time while he was sleeping, for him to doze off again, miserable and exhausted.

 

* * *

 

He manages to eat more of the soup than he’d been expecting, and though his throat still hurts and his head still feels like it’s about to explode, the nausea at least has passed. Nox disappears again after setting the bowl aside, and he rests his forehead on one of his bent knees as he hears the water start to run in the bathroom.

Kala jumps up on the bed while he waits, purring up a storm as she rubs up against his side, and he smiles a little. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he moved in with Nox at first, but Kala absolutely taking right to him hadn’t been it. He’d been expecting something more like—more like Kala trying to keep him as far away from Nox as she could.

He’s scratching the cat’s ear when Nox pokes her head out of the bathroom and says, “Ilya? It’s ready.”

Dragging himself out of bed is almost more than he can bear, and he sways a little as he stands unsteadily. At least he didn’t fall back onto the bed this time like he had earlier when he needed to use the bathroom.

It’s a bit strange, when he gets to the bathroom and Nox helps him undress. He can’t really remember the last time he really had something like this, where the act of getting undressed by someone else wasn’t leading to something sexy. Nox helps him into the tiny bathtub, and though he doesn’t fit  _very_ well, the hot water still makes him groan softly as he sinks into it. The steam in the room is already helping his head within a few minutes, and he takes a slow, deep breath when he can, sinking lower in the water in relief.

“Ilya?” Nox’s voice breaks through the fog in his head, and he turns to look at her curiously. She runs her wet hand through his hair, dampening the curls. “Can I wash your hair?”

He just nods, because he doesn’t have the energy for it, and with all the cold-sweating he’d been doing all day, he definitely _needs_ to wash his hair.

Julian’s pretty sure he’ll never understand what exactly it is about having someone else wash your hair that is so relaxing, but as she rinses his hair, massaging the suds in with gentle fingers, his muscles lose even more tension. Before long, he’s half ready to doze off in the warm water, leaning back against his girlfriend’s arm when she’s done, unable to care about the fact that he’s making her shirt wet.

She kisses his temple softly, fingers gently tracing little figures against his bare shoulder. “Let’s get you dry and put you back to bed, love.”

He just hums, mumbling a quiet, “Okay,” and lets her half haul him out of the tub. He tries to help her dry him off, but she’s faster with the towel, and he’s too low-energy to want to fight it. He only gets to do something for himself when he puts on the fresh set of pajamas she’d laid out for him, because even when he goes to dry his hair with the towel, she stops him.

“I can get that without using the hairdryer, if you want,” she offers, wiggling her fingers at him.

Normally, he’d argue about the magic, but he just wants to lay down, and laying down while sick with wet hair surely isn’t a good idea. When he nods, she snaps her fingers and a bubble of water pulls itself away from his hair, leaving it floofy as she sends it back to the tub, letting it drop with a splash.

He’s too tired to think about the physics of that.

When he crawls back into bed, it’s probably not even 5 pm yet, but Nox crawls in beside him. She smells like the ocean, and something citrusy, and it’s such a familiar smell now that he cuddles closer, sighing softly. Nox wraps her arms around him, one hand running through his hair gently, and the other trails up and down his back lightly.

He’s not sure if she’s using magic on him or not, but the aches have slowly dissipated, and it’s such a relief as he begins to slip into unconsciousness that with the last of his energy, he slurs, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, baby. Get some sleep.”

“Mm… will you stay?”

“I’ll be right here.”

“You’re an angel, d’you know that?”

She laughs, and he feels her press a kiss to the top of his head as she murmurs to him, “Sleep, Ilya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i woke up sick today and wanted nox to comfort me ;w;
> 
> there's actually a secret unreleased version of this that has much more to do with the 'angel' prompt but it was,,, uhhhhh Personal and a bit too religious-y for y'all probably


	20. Nervous

The first time Nox meets Mazelinka, officially as Julian’s girlfriend, it goes much better than she’d been expecting.

Of course, Mazelinka had always seemed to like her well enough, but Nox hadn’t met anyone’s family as _The Girlfriend_ before (something Julian had also been new to, when her father came to visit for her birthday barely _two months_ into their relationship—at least Nox got to wait a few more months before she started meeting _his_ family). It’s intimidating, walking up to the tiny house in her nicest sundress, holding Julian’s hand _way_ too tight and trying not to hyperventilate.

“Relax,” he breathes, pulling her closer with a little laugh. “She already likes you.”

“Yes,” she hisses back, messing with the hem of her dress. “But now I’m—it’s like I’m interviewing for a promotion or something.”

He laughs a little louder at that, pausing before they get to the door. “What does that even mean?”

She bounces a little, whining quietly. “I don’t know, Ilya! I’m just nervous. What if I say something stupid?”

“As if every other word out of my mouth isn’t something stupid?” He leans in and pecks her softly on the lips. “Darling, it’s just brunch. There’s no need to get so worked up.”

“I know, but…”

“Pasha is coming, too,” he reminds her, “and you know she considers you one of her best friends.”

She just sighs, burying her face in his shirt for a beat, before turning back to the door. “Okay. Let’s go. I’m… I’ll be fine.”

He kisses the top of her head as they continue forward and he knocks on the door. There’s some sounds from inside, some banging noises and Nox is pretty sure she hears someone call Portia’s name, before a few seconds later, the door swings open.

Portia beams at them, and then all but throws herself into Julian’s arms, throwing her arms around his neck and laughing when he stumbles a little in surprise. She presses a sweet kiss to Julian’s cheek as she pulls away to throw her arms around Nox, giggling into her shoulder as she says, “I know it’s only been, like, a week, but I feel like I haven’t seen you two in _forever_!”

When Portia pulls away again, Nox notices how nice she looks, in her pretty, flowery sundress that hung low off her shoulders, revealing dozens of freckles like stars all across her skin. Her hair is in its normal ponytail, piled high on her her head and falling gracefully against the side of her face, red waves against her creamy, freckled cheeks. For a moment, as Nox’s eyes catch on her necklace, Nox thinks she’s wearing a choker with a pentagram on it, but a moment later she realizes it’s the Star of David.

“Come in, come in!” Portia laughs, seizing Nox’s wrist and all but dragging her into the house, leaving Julian laughing behind her as he closes the door behind them.

“Mazelinka! Ilya and his _girlfriend_ are here!” Portia calls as they round the corner into the little kitchen.

Mazelinka is moving a pot off the stove as they arrive, and she hasn’t changed much at all since the first time Nox met her, years ago now. She’s still just a little shorter than Nox, still has that steely look in her eye as she considers her from under her nice blue shawl, wiry grey hair still framing her face.

“You’re late!” Mazelinka says, laughing when Nox must make a face.

Julian’s hand settles on her shoulder, and he squeezes as he says, “She’s just teasing, dear.”

Mazelinka does have a mischievous twinkle in her eye, Nox notices now as she swallows thickly, trying to smile through the nervousness. “I knew that…”

That makes _everyone_ laugh, and Nox shrinks back into Julian’s chest a little bit, face burning like mad. Mazelinka shakes her head, smiling at them affectionately, and waves her wooden spoon in the general direction of the living room. “Pasha, why don’t you show Nox some of your old pictures? Embarrassing Ilya should make _her_ feel a little better.”

“Oh, gee, thanks so much,” Julian says sarcastically, just as Portia hooks her arm through Nox’s and leads her away again.

 

* * *

 

The sitting room is small and cozy, with a little fireplace in the middle. There aren’t many pictures laying around, not like Nox had expected, but Portia heads straight for a small bookshelf in the corner of the room—a bookshelf filled with photo albums.

Julian sinks heavily into the sofa, sighing, and he drags Nox down onto the seat with him, draping his arm around her shoulders as she ends up curled against his side. Portia has apparently just grabbed an armful of photo albums, and dumps them rather unceremoniously in their laps, sitting beside them and opening up one at random.

Picking through the album that had landed in her lap does help a little bit, she realizes as she finds her first kid picture of Julian. He must be about five, holding a very large, fluffy, grumpy looking orange cat and grinning at the camera, missing both of his front teeth.

“Oh, _Ilya_ ,” Nox coos. “Look at your _little nose_.”

Julian laughs as he peers over her shoulder. Touching the picture, he says, “That was Svetlana. She was a very sweet, actually, though you can’t tell from the face she’s making in this picture.”

“Ilya used to be scared of the old house we used to live in,” Portia explains, giggling a little, “so Svetlana would crawl into his bed basically lay on his chest and purr until he passed out.”

Julian seems unfazed by that, sniffing as he says, “I’m still convinced that place was haunted.”

Portia laughs, and they turn a few more pages, before Nox stops them, gasping.

“Are these Halloween costumes??”

Julian hums beside her, pointing at one of the pictures. “They are. This one Pasha was just past her first birthday—I was a scarecrow and she was a pumpkin.”

“You’re both so _cute_ ,” Nox laughs.

Portia gasps beside her, making Nox jump a little, as she starts digging through the albums, looking for one specific one apparently. “Wait, wait, I gotta find the—aha! Wait ‘til you see this one, Nox.”

She shoves an open album into Nox’s arms, and Julian actually groans beside her. Nox laughs when she recognizes the costume, and, “You were the Phantom of the Opera?”

“Tell her how many times you were the Phantom of the Opera, Ilyushka.”

“Pasha, this is unnecessary.”

“Fine, I’ll just—”

“— _three years_ , alright, I did Phantom for three years,” he grumbles, glaring at his sister as Nox leans back a little to give them more room.

Portia is still laughing. “He used to run around and sing the songs for more candy when we went trick-or-treating.”

Nox laughs, looking up at her boyfriend who has gone completely red in the face. “That’s _adorable_.”

“Well,” he says, clearing his throat, “I did always come home with more candy than anyone else, so…”

Portia rolls her eyes then, and before Nox can say anything else, Mazelinka calls them for lunch. Portia sets the album she’d been holding on the coffee table as she goes to help Mazelinka set the table, leaving Julian and Nox alone for just a moment, letting Nox catch her breath a little bit. Julian presses a kiss to her temple as he helps her stack the albums on the table.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

“Actually? Yes. Mazelinka was right.”

He snorts, nodding, as he rises to his feet and offers her his hands. “She usually is.”

Nox lets him pull her to her feet, tilting her chin expectantly and smiling when he bends to give her another kiss. When he pulls away, she sighs a little. “I just hope she still likes me by the end of this.”

He shakes his head, nudging her gently as he starts to move back towards the kitchen. “She _will._ You’re going to do beautifully, darling. Just be yourself.”

“I hope you’re right.”

 

* * *

 

Nox gets a moment alone with Mazelinka after brunch is over, when she sends Portia and Julian to do the dishes. She’s pretty sure she specified for them to do it entirely on purpose, so that Nox has no choice but to sit in the living room and face her fears.

Nox fiddles with her rings as Mazelinka sits beside her with a low sigh.

“Ahh, I’m getting old.”

Nox laughs softly, shaking her head a little. “Not _that_ old. You’ve certainly got more energy than I do.”

Mazelinka’s gaze twinkles as she looks up her, grinning a wry, crooked smile. “Oh, I don’t know about that. You’ve been keeping up with Ilya and Pasha for years now, from what they tell me.”

Nox hums humorlessly. “More like they’ve been dragging me along, making me feel included out of pity.”

Mazelinka clucks disapprovingly, shaking her head as Nox shrinks into the couch a little bit. “You’re almost as bad as he is, talking about yourself like that.” Nox just blushes, looking away, as Mazelinka laughs a little and adds, “I’ve never seen that boy go all glossy-eyed like he does for you. _Every_ time he came to visit— _Nox_ this and _Nox and I_ that. He’s cared for you for a very long time.”

She smiles at that, eyes on her fingers. “...I know. I was just too stubborn—I’m lucky he’s even giving me the chance to love him at all.”

Mazelinka snorts. “Nonsense. Ilya would have waited a thousand lifetimes for even the tiniest chance at being yours—no matter how many times I tried to convince him that it was a waste of time.”

Nox’s heart sinks a little as she looks up again, biting the inside of her cheek uncomfortably. “I’m sor—”

Mazelinka stops her, holding a hand up. “Now, none of that. We’re not here to talk about the past—what I want to know is what you plan to do with him now that you’ve got him. He may not be my boy by blood, but that doesn’t mean he’s not family, and if you hurt him…”

She doesn’t finish her sentence, but Nox knows what she’s insinuating, and inhales sharply as anxiety rises in her chest.

She clears her throat, coughing a little, and, after a brief moment of thought, says, “Honestly? He’s... the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He’s my best friend and the love of my life. I don’t want to hurt him—in fact,” she laughs a little, “all I ever wanna do is spend the rest of my life making him as happy as he can be. I have no intention of ever letting him go, so long as he’ll have me. This—This is… it’s... _he’s_ …”

Nox pauses, struggling for words. She’s thought about how she’d describe him so many times, how very deeply she cares about him, what he means to her, but…

“He’s everything.”

She looks over and finds Mazelinka smiling thoughtfully, and she smiles back hopefully.

“Ilya means the world to me. I love him more than anything. I don’t know what the future holds, but… I know that I’d do anything to stay by his side. Whatever it takes.”

Mazelinka looks at her carefully for a beat longer, knowing eyes running over her face, looking for signs maybe that she’s lying—and then she sighs, nodding. “Well, I’m glad to hear it. You’ll need to hold on real tight, though. He’s a slippery boy.”

Nox and Mazelinka both laugh at that, just as Julian pokes his head around the corner.

“Who’s slippery, hmm? You two talking about me behind my back?”

Nox snorts when she notices the soap suds in his hair, and he winks at her just as Portia appears at his side, the entire front of her dress sopping wet.

“Did you two make a mess of my kitchen again?” She shakes her head, giving Nox a Look as she rises to go inspect the damage. “Can’t leave you alone for five minutes…”

She shoves between the siblings as she goes into the kitchen, and Nox rises to her feet, too, just as Portia nudges Julian towards her and disappears again with a wink.

Julian crosses the room in two long strides, ducking his head immediately to catch her lips with his, wet hands coming up to cup her cheeks as he hums into her mouth. “I love you, too,” he breathes.

“I’m sorry I made you wait so long,” she mumbles, hands coming up to fiddle with his shirt.

Her boyfriend grins her favorite, crooked smile as he laughs and says, “Darling, you were more than worth the wait. This is better than I could have ever dreamed. You don’t have to apologize—things happened exactly when they were supposed to happen.”

Unable to find any more words for how much she loves him, Nox just laughs and pulls him down for another kiss.

Things really are right where they're supposed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this original prompt was Tim Burton but uhhhh i didnt know wtf to do with that so


	21. Zombie

“Wait—what do you _mean_ you’re not afraid of zombie movies?”

Julian just laughs popping a handful of popcorn in his mouth, sliding a little further down against her as someone on the screen gets ripped open. His cheek is cushioned on her shoulder, and while he’s making a face at the gore, he doesn’t actually look terrified like he normally does when they have horror movie marathons.

“But… you hid behind me for half of _World War Z?”_

Julian shrugs, chuckling as he presses a kiss to her shoulder. “I just wanted to cuddle with you, Pendragon. Keep up.”

She blinks a few times, going back to resting her cheek on the top of his head. She’s seen this movie before, in theaters when it came out, because Julian had been visiting a friend and she and Portia had been bored. It hadn’t scared her then, and it doesn’t really scare her now, beyond it being really gross.

Of course, Julian had never really been bothered by gory movies, while she’d ended up hiding her face in _his_ shoulder instead. A side-effect of being a pre-med student back in his college days, she supposes.

Julian’s voice breaks her out of her thoughts after another minute.

“Are you mad at me?”

“Huh?”

He shifts, tilting his head so he can look up at her as she glances down at him. He looks—very concerned, straightening up a little more to look her in the eye more comfortably. “Are you mad?”

“Why would I be mad?

“Because I lied about being scared to get something out of you?”

Nox snorts, shaking her head and rubbing at her face tiredly. She loves her boyfriend very much, but sometimes he’s a bit…

She leans in to give him a kiss on the lips, soft and sweet. “Sweetheart, you worry way too much.”

He leans after her when she pulls away, eyes on her mouth, and she has the feeling they’re about to stop paying attention to the movie here in a minute. “You know,” he starts quietly, and when he’s this close, she can see all the little blue flecks in his pretty grey eyes, “there is such a thing as being _too_ forgiving.”

Nox shakes her head, grinning as the tip of her nose brushes against his. “I know you think you do a lot of bad things all the time, but the truth is that you are a very good man, and never do anything to make me angry ever.”

He leans in and kisses her again, slow and easy, and his lips taste like popcorn as she kisses him back. Someone on the movie screams, and Nox laughs breathily into his lips when he just tilts his head and kisses her a little harder, humming contentedly. Every time he tries to break away, to turn back to the movie, Nox leans in and kisses him again, slipping her tongue between his lips when he makes a surprised sound into her mouth.

“Who’s trying to hide from the movie now?” he chuckles in between kisses.

Nox glances back towards the screen for a moment, finds some more extremely graphic gore, and looks back at him, eyes running over his handsome features contemplatively. He raises an eyebrow at her, grinning smugly as he flicks his gaze between her lips and her eyes a few times. She brings her mouth back to his after another beat, dragging her lips against his while he grins giddily into her mouth.

Her soft, short kisses grow longer and longer as she keeps coming back for more, and it becomes harder and harder for him to kiss her back as his smile widens into a goofy grin. She shifts in her seat, antsy as he kisses her back, mind wandering back to all the times she’d thought about being able to do this. It really should’ve been a bigger sign, every little intrusive thought she’d had about _What if I leaned over right now and kissed him? Would he kiss me back or push me away? What would it feel like to have him press me into the couch cushions or up against the wall while he kissed me breathless?_

People don’t really tend to think those things about their best friends, apparently.

Go figure.

Julian shifts, leaning away a little and laughing as she just follows after him, grabbing at his collar to keep his mouth against hers.

“Let me,” he starts, but she cuts him off with another kiss, which just makes him giggle more. “Let me put the popcorn on the table.”

“Hurry _up_.”

He almost throws the bowl in his haste, both of them laughing now as he settles back against the cushions and pulls her mouth back to his, groaning softly. Nox has barely managed to deepen the kiss again when he breaks it, pulling back just enough that she opens her eyes to find him smirking up at her.

“Come here. Come _closer_.”

His voice is low and smooth, sending a fresh wave of heat washing over her skin as he all but hauls her into his lap, groaning when she brings her mouth down on his. He deepens the kiss, pulling her closer with his hands on her hips, desperation making his fingers dig in so hard that it almost hurts. They’ve been together so long now, but sometimes she still has moments like this, where it feels like she’s just fooling around with her best friend, and it sends a little shock of excitement through her stomach every time.

He runs his hands up and down her sides, sighing deeply as she tilts her head and runs a hand through his hair, a sound that sends a shiver down her spine and has her making a quiet little noise of her own.

She’d already stopped listening to the tv, but Julian apparently hadn’t, because he laughs into her mouth and says, “Let me guess—the ones having sex right now are going to die soon?”

Pulling away to raise an eyebrow at him, she blinks at his flushed face as he bites at his kiss swollen lower lip and watches the movie over her shoulder. Stroking her thumbs lightly across his cheeks, she says flatly, “I’m literally sitting in your lap with my tongue halfway down your throat and you’re _still_ watching the movie?”

Julian laughs, tilting his chin to kiss her again. “What? We paid good money to rent this stupid thing. I at _least_ want to know what happens.”

“I could just tell you so we can turn it off.”

“You mean you don’t find the sounds of people getting mutilated to be a sexy soundtrack for our make out session?”

Nox giggles, leaning in and kissing him firmly as he laughs with her.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Mm. You love it.”

“I really do.” She kisses him one more time, before sighing and moving off of his lap to sit next to him again. “Fine, we’ll finish the movie first. I expect you to make up for making me sit through this, though.”

His answering grin is positively wicked, the heated look he gives her full of ideas as he waggles his eyebrows at her.

“Ohh, darling, I’ll _more_ than make up for it. You’ll be hoarse come morning.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Ha! I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when in doubt write kiss scenes


	22. Music

In truth, Julian’s much better at figuring out how to cheer her up than he gives himself credit for.

She gets like this every so often, echoes of misery reaching out oily tendrils from the past, trying to leak into her wonderful present. It usually passes on its own, with a few good rom-coms and some sweet cuddles from her beautiful boyfriend, but today it’s being stubborn. The rom-coms are doing nothing for her, the cat doesn’t seem all that interested in comforting her as she sits and tries not to cry. There’s an icy fist clenched tight around her heart, and it only squeezes tighter as the day goes on.

She’d woken up well before Julian today, as he’d stayed up until well past dawn, so she’s not expecting him to come rescue her for a while—and even then, she doesn’t expect him to shoulder all the weight of it.

She just wants to lay her head on his shoulder and listen to him breathe for a while, maybe ask him to tell her a story or read to her. Anything, really, that will have her focus on him instead of the storm cloud hovering just over her shoulder.

When she hears the first tell-tale sounds of his guitar from the direction of the bedroom, she sniffles, turning her head and listening to see if he’ll continue. He plucks a few more chords, runs through a few scales, and it makes her smile a little, the sound of it.

He hasn’t played his guitar in a while. He must be feeling really good today.

He starts to play something familiar, and her eyes sting, as she gets up off the couch, padding over to the bedroom door and opening it gently to peek around the door frame at him.

Her boyfriend is sitting on her side of the bed, facing the window as he plays, humming softly to himself, still in his pajamas with a serious case of bedhead. It makes her smile, to see that he’d apparently just woken up with the urge to sing, and she’s leaning on the door frame when he glances over towards her.

“You could come closer, if you like,” he says, grinning as he turns to face her a little more, folding his leg up under him on the bed.

She takes his invitation without argument, not needing any more convincing as she crawls into bed beside him, leaning back against the headboard and hugging one of the extra pillows to her chest. He smiles, though it barely reaches his eyes as his gaze lingers on her wet cheeks, and starts strumming away again.

“Any requests, my love?” Julian asks, gaze brightening a little bit as he looks over at her.

She shrugs, sniffling a little. “Play whatever you like. I’m just glad to hear you making music again.”

He grins, chuckling. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

She hums. “We’ve been busy.”

“Mm. It’s been fun, but I think we both need a little music therapy today, hmm?”

Nox laughs a little, sighing softly. “You don’t feel good either?”

“How could I when you’re obviously hurting so much?” he asks, and her cheeks burn as he turns to give her a sweet look. “Maybe a little cheesy, over-the-top romance will cheer you up, eh?”

She giggles, and he laughs warmly as he starts to strum a familiar song, leaning back against the headboard with her and murmuring a quiet, “Come a little closer, darling,” until she has her face buried in his shoulder.

Satisfied, he presses a tender kiss to the top of her head and starts to sing, soft and low, just for her.

 _“Hold me close and hold me fast,_ _  
_ _This magic spell you cast,_  
_This is la vie en rose._

 _When you kiss me, heaven sighs,_ _  
_ _And though I close my eyes,_  
_I see la vie en rose.”_

Goosebumps prickle across her skin at the sound of French on his tongue, memories of their week in Paris flashing in the back of her mind and she grins into his shoulder, something that he can feel because she can hear his grin as he continues to sing.

 _“When you press me to you heart,_ _  
_ _I’m in a world apart,_ _  
_ _A world where roses bloom._ _  
_ _And when you speak_ _  
_ _Angels sing from above._ _  
_ _Everyday words seem_  
_To turn into love songs.”_

Julian leans closer, pressing another kiss to the top of her head, resting his forehead against her hair as he sings on.

 _“Give your heart and soul to me,_ _  
_ _And life will always be_  
_La Vie En Rose.”_

Nox turns her head and kisses him as he strums the instrumental break, heart already lighter from one song, and when he reaches the final chorus, she joins him a little shyly, giggling when his whole face lights up.

 _“And when you speak_ _  
_ _Angels sing from above._ _  
_ _Everyday words seem_  
_To turn into love songs.”_

The final chorus they sing with their foreheads pressed together, nuzzling their noses together as they almost murmur the words.

 _“Give your heart and soul to me,_ _  
_ _And life will always be_  
_La Vie En Rose.”_

She kisses him as the song ends, and he laughs into her kiss, letting go of the neck of his guitar to cup her jaw and urge her closer, fingers sliding into the hair at the nape of her neck. When she breaks away a moment later, they’re both grinning, and Julian’s raised an eyebrow in a smug smirk as he says, “Have I already cured you with the one song?”

Nox laughs, kissing him on the tip of his nose. “I dunno. I think you should play me a few more love songs, just to be sure.”

“Of course, my dear. Anything you want.”

 

She can’t quite bring herself to feel bad for the neighbors when, a half hour later, she and Julian are belting _Take Me Home, Country Roads_ at nearly the top of their lungs, laughing between verses. They’re not even a little bit drunk on anything but each other, and she loves it more than she can even say. He knows her so well, can read her like a children’s book, and it’s really incredible how easily he can make her laugh, even when she’s hurting.

By the time he puts the guitar away so they can start dinner together, they’re as giggly as ever, trading sweet kisses between sentences as they discuss what they’re going to eat. He’s a little bit handsy, even, and it makes her laugh even more.

When he turns the radio on, they dance around the kitchen, humming along to the songs they know, and trying their best with the songs they don’t. He presses right up against her back at one point, hands low on her hips as he presses slow kisses to her neck, swaying them to the sound of whatever cheesy ballad has come on now as she tries to tend to the pasta boiling on the stove.

She wonders if he has any idea, the depth of what she feels for him as he stays close. If he can feel how much she loves him, if she tells him enough, shows him enough, what he means to her. She worries about it only a little as she runs a hand through his hair, spinning in his arms to receive another sweet kiss.

Ah, well.

He’ll know someday, even if she has to spend the rest of her life showing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when's the last time songfics were cool again? lmao


	23. TV Show

“Mm, are you as excited for tonight as I am?”

Julian’s voice is barely a murmur as he wraps his arms around her from behind, bending his head until his lips brush her ear as he sways them a little on the spot. She stirs her cup of hot cocoa a little more, raising an eyebrow as she glances at him out of the corner of her eye. He’s smirking at her, eyes twinkling with mischief, and she’s suddenly very aware that they’re not alone in the break room right now.

Smirking right back at him, she turns to press a lingering kiss to his cheek, and breathes, “I don’t know. I’m pretty excited.”

Julian smiles, dragging his teeth gently against the skin on her jaw. “Perfect.”

“ _Ugh_.”

Nox and Julian smirk at each other, as Nox turns to look over her shoulder as innocently as she can. Julian keeps his chin resting firmly on her shoulder, and they both smile pleasantly at Lucio, who is sitting at one of the tables with his face scrunched up.

“Can we help you, Lucy?” Nox asks smoothly.

Lucio glares, one over-penciled in eyebrow twitching with annoyance. “Yes, I thought I told you _not_ to call me that anymore.”

“And I never agreed.”

“And you can also stop… being _nasty_ in the common area, thanks.”

Nox rolls her eyes as Julian just tightens his arms around her waist, sighing as she says, “You’re always being nasty. Let someone else have a turn.”

“Ex _cuse_ you, I—”

“—Would you look at the time?” Julian interrupts dramatically, lifting Nox’s bare wrist like he’s looking at a watch. “Break’s almost over. Back to work!”

Her boyfriend gives her a wink as he pulls away, guiding her out of the room with his hand on the small of her back. He bows when he pulls the door open for her, letting her go first with a soft little “ _After you, my dear,_ ” grinning when she giggles as she heads through the door and back over to their desks.

Julian’s hand runs up and down her back as they reach their desks and, ever the gentleman, he makes sure to pull her chair out for her, bending to press a sweet kiss to her cheek as she sits. She laughs, setting her drink down before haphazardly grabbing at his shirt, pulling him down for one more kiss on the lips before they return to work.

“I really am looking forward to tonight,” she mumbles.

His answering smile is warm, silver eyes gleaming as he waggles his eyebrows and says, “Good.”

They’d been counting down to tonight, to be honest. For months now, it had been in their calendars—a date night to remember. They’d really gone the whole nine yards, having bought drinks and snacks and special outfits.

They were going all out, and Nox could not be more ready to get out of here.

 

It was actually extremely funny, if she were being honest, how many people gave them _looks_ throughout the day. Asra winked three times, at least, and two different people wished them a good night on the way out, with an added, " _Be safe_ ,” in a tone that very much said that they meant that as sexually as you could possibly take it. Julian had wrapped his arm around her shoulders at the suggestion, winking at their coworker until someone else calls:

“Don’t break him!”

That makes Nox laugh, burying her face in her boyfriend’s ribs as they duck out of the building to go find their car. Julian pulls her closer with a laugh of his own, one that she can feel vibrating in his chest, before they finally make it to their car.

And burst into laughter the second the doors close.

“Did—Did you see their _faces_?” Julian wheezes, wiping at his eyes as Nox laughs with him.

“They really think we’re about to go at it like bunnies in heat.”

“I mean… we _could_ —”

“—we’re _not_ risking missing this for a quickie,” Nox says seriously, grinning when her boyfriend snorts. “Let’s go home so we have time to make snacks.”

 

“Well?”

Julian’s voice distracts Nox from watching the popcorn pop in the microwave, and she turns curiously to find him standing in the bedroom doorway, hands held out from his sides.

“How do I look?”

She laughs a little, shaking her head, because they’d bought stupid, matching t-shirts for this, and the fact that they’d done that…

His shirt fits him well, comfortable looking, with a blue planet Earth on the front of it. He’s got his favorite old pair of sweats on with it, and he looks every bit ready for a long night of lounging around and doing nothing in particular.

“You look devilishly handsome,” Nox says wryly, turning to prop a hand up on her hip. “What about me?”

“ _Ravishing_ ,” he almost growls, crossing the room to pull her into his arms so he can kiss her sweetly on the lips. “Though, I can’t tell yet if these actually glow in the dark or not.”

She shrugs as the microwave goes off. While Julian reaches for the bowl, she carefully pulls the bag out, shaking it so that the butter is evenly spread. “We’re gonna turn the lights off to watch it, aren’t we?”

Her boyfriend snorts. “Of course, we are? What would be the point of fixing the surround sound and making sure we fixed the nice plasma screen if we were going to watch with the lights on like animals?”

Nox laughs, tossing her head back as he pads over to the sofa and falls back onto the cushions, sighing loudly as he props his feet up on the coffee table and throws a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

“You’ll grab the sodas and turn the lights off, right, darling?”

Rolling her eyes, she just smirks to herself as she does as he asks, careful not to shake his drink up even though she feels like it a little bit. When she sits next to him, handing him the bottle of soda and sighing softly as she reaches for the remote, he stops her just for a moment. Gently gripping her chin, he leans in and kisses her once, firm and warm, and murmurs a quiet, “Thank you, love.”

She kisses him again, smiling into his lips, before settling down against his side, resting her head on his shoulder and hugging one of the decorative pillows to her chest. Snuggling a little closer as she turns the volume up, she asks softly, “Are you ready?”

“Ohh, sweetheart, I’ve been ready for _sixteen years_.”

She laughs at that, shaking her head just as the TV says:

_Blue Planet II starts now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nya's idea of an exciting date night sometimes is, in fact, watching nature documentaries in high definition with all the lights off because theyre Huge Nerds
> 
> im strugglin, scoob. these are getting harder and harder to write,, but we're gonna hit that 50k if it kills me


	24. Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Trigger Warning: Y'all remember The Hanged Man? Yeah, implied character death (in the form of a nightmare here, of course, because Julian is not a convicted murderer in the AU and y'all know I'm really not about that 'implied character death' life)**
> 
> If you want to avoid reliving that particularly charming part of the game, skip the section that's in all italics.

Beyond this place being a sprawling, extravagant mess of proof that capitalism is a disease that needs to be purged, Nox’s first impression of this— _palace_ is that there’s nothing particularly dark or malicious about it.

Yes, the hedge maze is big and intimidating. Yes, there’s a huge fairy ring in the garden. Yes, it’s possible that a lot of people died on the property.

Despite all of that, beyond the strange, humming sensation of magic, old and powerful, sunken deep into the stones that make up the building, she isn’t worried about much. It’s a beautiful place, with lots of things she’d like to explore, had they been allowed. Secret passageways she can feel sparking with magic like static electricity as they pass, each calling her name, begging her to reach out and interact, to see what lay beyond.

But she’s still fairly comfortable walking around, unworried about things that may lurk in the shadows. As far as she can tell initially, there’s nothing to be worried about.

Until night falls, and the lights go out.

Julian’s demeanor changes immediately, shifting from the charming, laid-back person he’d been a moment ago, to a man riddled with tension and anxiety, jumping at every little thing. With the coming of night, something seems to ooze from the shadows, oily and slick with bad energy. Even Muriel seems a little more tense with the coming of night.

Or maybe she’s just projecting.

“Shall we… start with the dining hall?” Julian asks after a beat, voice quiet and a little shaky.

“With the weird, furry painting?” Julian laughs a little at that, and Nox sighs. “We might as well. I think it’s closer than the forbidden wing, anyway.”

“Ah, yes. I think I’d like to avoid that area of the building for as long as physically possible, if that’s alright with you, my love.”

Something feels off that way, anyway—like she can feel something waiting for them.

“To the dining hall,” she sighs, and they set off.

 

* * *

 

There’s nothing much to be seen in the dining hall, in the end.

The painting hanging over the table, the one with the devil himself in the center, with his red, red eyes, seemed to be watching them the whole time, but that’s all. A trick of the light, most likely, when Nox lights the candles down the center of the table just to see if the painting really _does_ move.

It’s _probably_ a trick of the light, anyway, something about how old paintings always seem to shift in the flickering candlelight.

They do an EVP session, but Nox is pretty sure they didn’t get much of anything from that. There aren’t any specters in the room with them from what she can tell, even as she sits on the dining table, swinging her legs idly as Julian hovers close. His hand comes to rest on her leg at one point, shaky and cold, and she covers his hand with hers, casting a little warming spell over his skin that makes him sigh softly.

What they do get, the moment they turn the spirit box on, is the sound of laughter.

“Oh, I hate it, _I hate it_ , what the fuck,” Julian says, holding the little machine away from his body like it’s about to catch fire.

“What do you want?” Nox asks, raising her voice a little to be heard over the roar of the speaker.

There’s nothing but static for a moment, and she’s about to ask another question, when the box haltingly says, “ _Come—here—_ ”

“‘Come here’? Where is ‘here’?”

 _“Li-brary_.”

“Library?” Julian makes a face at Nox, who just shrugs. “What’s in the library?”

But the box doesn’t say anything else, and when they get no other response for the next several minutes, they decide to move on. Julian seems uneasy as they get ready to set off again, walking a little closer to Nox than he had been before.

The only one of them that doesn’t seem to be at least a little nervous is Muriel, who is afraid of nothing.

“What do you think is waiting for us in the library?” Julian asks shakily, as they start to head that way.

Nox shrugs a little, letting out an unsteady breath of her own. “I mean, there’s the dungeon we went through earlier when they were showing us around.”

“The dungeon where they used to dissect people during the height of the plague?” Julian asks flatly.

“Got any other ideas as to what the ghosts want us to see in the library?” She smirks a little when he makes an unhappy sound in his throat. Slipping her hand into his as they walk, she squeezes his clammy hand and says, “Don’t worry. I’ll be right here.”

 

* * *

 

_Red._

_Too much red_.

That had been her first impression of the passageway behind the bookshelf, and it’s somehow even worse now that all the lights are out. The dungeon is more like a cave than an actual basement, carved out of the stone and echoing lightly as they walk. The walls are red—clay, maybe, but they’re somehow wet, now, and Nox tries not to equate the sight to blood oozing down the walls.

Or at least, not out loud.

When they reach the wrought iron elevator, they stop, because they’re not actually allowed to go any further. The elevator seems to require some kind of key to activate it, first of all, and secondly, well—the groundskeeper had said that it wasn’t safe, and Nox wasn’t interested in losing a limb tonight, if she can help it.

There’s a cold breeze blowing up from the pit beneath them, as Nox crosses her arms and wanders closer to the elevator. She can only imagine what the torture chamber down there looked like from the description they’d been given—cages lining the edges of the room, cells with heavy wooden planks for locks. Metal tables with leather straps, platter upon platter of surgical tools, jars full of human body parts and leeches.

A true nightmare, all drenched in that same terrible red.

It makes her stomach turn just thinking about it.

“This… this is where one of the more dangerous spirits hangs around, isn’t it?” Julian asks quietly, and when she looks up at him, his gaze is fixed on a corner of the room.

Nox sniffs uncomfortably, crossing her arms a little tighter against the cold. “I wouldn’t say _dangerous_ , as there’s no record of anyone getting seriously injured—”

“—scratches and bruises _are_ injuries.”

That’s fair.

Nox shrugs again, shifting her weight. “Okay, well, they said those were rare, and that usually people just… heard whispering and footsteps.”

Julian shudders as they fall quiet for a moment, listening for… _anything_ really. Footsteps, voices, thumps. Anything at all beyond the quiet sound of wind making the elevator creak, metal knocking against metal in the quiet chamber.

Nox has almost started to relax when she registers something that sounds like speaking from down below.

It’s clearly a voice, though she can’t make out any words as she and Julian make wide-eyed eye contact for a beat, before she leans a little closer to the bars and listens. The voice isn’t whispering, something about the timber suggesting that whoever it is is having a completely normal conversation with someone else, though no second voice ever replies. They could be talking to themselves, she supposes, but no one is supposed to be down there anyway.

...right?

Julian startles her a moment later when he gasps, and for a hot second she thinks he’s seen something, or felt something, until—

“ _ACHOO!_ ”

He sniffles, rubbing at his nose while Nox and Muriel both stare at him, tense around the shoulders. He clears his throat, looking up at them and smiling a little bit, confused.

“...What?”

Nox shakes her head, rolling her eyes as she moves to head back up the stairs and out of this hellhole. “Nothing,” she sighs, as her boyfriend snickers behind her. “I guess let’s try to get a little more investigating done in here while things are weir—”

She cuts off when the very specific sound of heeled boots on stone echoes from the passageway in front of her, stopping her train of thought in her tracks. All of them wait with baited breath as the footsteps come closer, the darkness beyond her flashlight beam suddenly much darker than it had been. There’s something there, moving just out of sight, and it feels… _wrong_.

The presence feels like a void, moving towards her with sharp, purposeful steps.

Burning, white hot anxiety rises in her chest like bile when her flashlight starts to flicker, and distantly she thinks she hears Julian call her name—but all she can focus on is the sudden smell of rotting flesh as she hurriedly produces a ball of light in her palm, holding it up to see what she can feel right in front of her.

It’s just a flash, so fast she’s not sure she saw it, but she swears she can see a pair of red eyes twinkling mischievously at her in the firelight, set into gaunt face covered by a surgical mask.

But then it’s gone in the very next moment, and the sense of _something_ dissipates, until she can’t feel anything at all.

“...Nox?”

Swallowing thickly, her eyes linger on the darkness in front of her for a moment longer, before she turns to smile at her boyfriend.

“It’s fine. We should—try the spirit box again. Though, I think whatever that was has… left.”

She’s wrong about that, apparently, because as soon as Julian turns the little radio on, a voice comes through immediately.

“ _It’s_ — _down here._ ”

“What’s down there?” Julian asks. When the voice doesn’t respond, he tries again. “Who are you? Can you say your name? Or _our_ names?”

“ _Devorak…_ ”

Julian’s entire face goes even whiter than usual, eyes wide, jaw dropping as he looks down at the box in his hands. Nox watches his throat bob as he swallows thickly, and he looks up at her helplessly as he asks, “Did it just say…?”

Nox takes the spirit box from him then, a sense of dread creeping up her spine like water droplets on her skin, shutting it off with a firm click.

“That’s enough of that, I think. Let’s go somewhere else.”

  

* * *

 

The fact that Julian has made the executive decision to sleep in the room where a man supposedly spontaneously combusted, down the hallway that’s rumored to have some sort of goat demon creature roaming the halls, where all the portraits of the man who used to live here (who reminds her strangely of Lucio from work) have the eyes gouged out with long, slashing claw marks—is honestly incredible.

But not as incredible as the fact that she’s actually apprehensive about trying to sleep in this room, especially after they’ve sent Muriel back to the hotel. She usually doesn’t mind, especially when the bed they get to sleep in is this nice, but there’s something about the overwhelming amounts of _red…_

The entire room is drenched in red. Red walls, red carpet, red canopy, red curtains, red ceiling. Red is a color she usually enjoys, one of her favorites, warm and comforting in the right circumstances. Hell, she’s even dating a redhead.

This, however, is far too much, and it makes her uneasy.

A fact that makes Julian antsy, when he notices the way she’s setting up a few extra wards around the entry ways.

“Is… everything alright, Nox?”

She hums softly, flipping through her sketch pad for another protection ward to go by the fireplace passage. They weren’t allowed in that room either, but there’s _something_ about that area that has her anxious.

And she’d rather be safe than sorry.

As she sets up the ward, she turns to smile at her boyfriend, sitting up in the bed. “Let’s just say I don’t particularly care for this house.”

He laughs a little, watching her get ready for bed with a soft look in his eye. “Odd to see you even slightly rattled.”

Nox sighs, satisfied finally with her protective enchantments as she pads over and climbs into bed beside him. The sheets are luxurious, at least, soft and cool as she burrows into the pillows. Her boyfriend reaches out after a moment to brush her hair out of her face, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead.

She reaches for his hand to press a kiss to his fingers as she says, “There was just… a lot more activity than I think I was expecting. It’ll be fine.”

“You think you’ll be able to sleep?” he asks, lying down on the pillow beside her.

She shrugs. She’s still uneasy, but once the lights are back off, at least she won’t be able to see all the red anymore.

“I’m sure I’ll drift off eventually. What about you?”

Julian laughs, shaking his head as he threads his fingers through hers, watching his hand instead of her face. “Probably not—especially after that one voice that said my name.”

“You’re safe with me,” she reminds him, and his grin widens a little bit.

“I know.” He pauses briefly, eyes running across her face, before he says, “I love you.”

Nox leans in and gives him one sweet kiss on the lips before settling down to try to sleep as he shuts the lights off.

“I love you, too.”

 

* * *

 

_Red._

_The first thing she sees is red._

_It’s a coat, lying on a cot in the corner of what appears to be some kind of medieval cell. Her eyes take another minute to focus, and then she registers the rattling of chains, and when she looks up, she sees_ —

_“Julian?”_

_Her mind skips a little, something about his name feels wrong in her mouth as he stops to look at her, as though he’s seeing her for the first time. He’s wearing an eyepatch over his right eye, and the way he’s dressed…_

_“Why are you doing this?” she hears herself say, and Julian’s face twists into a sneer._

_“Why am I doing what? I’m guilty. I deserve this.”_

_“That’s not true, and we both know it!” she argues, reaching out to catch his wrists. Why are they here? Why won’t her boyfriend look her in the eye? What’s going on? “Please, I know you. You wouldn’t_ — _you_ didn’t—”

_He scoffs, yanking free of her grasp. “You think you know me? You don’t know the first thing about me.”_

Ilya, please, just tell me what’s going on _, she tries to say, but her mouth isn’t listening._

_His face falls a little, like he’s just realized what he’s done, and he reaches for her again with a quiet mumble of her name, but before he can touch her, she blinks and the world shifts around her. One moment, she’s standing in a jail cell with her beloved, and the next, she’s standing in the middle of some kind of arena._

_Julian glares down at her from a stand, and the crowd roars deafeningly around them._

_“I hereby sentence the murderous Dr. Devorak to death by hanging!”_

_“No!”_

_Her mouth finally listens to her, but the crowd drowns it out. Julian won’t look at her, and she doesn’t_ understand—

 _Her gaze catches on a different familiar face_ — _the face from the hallway. The red eyes and the surgical mask, the way their eyes crinkle like they’re smiling underneath. She can’t possibly hear them from this distance, but_ — _something like a memory echoes in her mind._

_“I was looking forward to prying open that skull. Then again, today might be my lucky day after all.”_

_She sees red again, but for different reasons, rage pumping through her veins like lava, and she can almost hear herself growling, “Lay a finger on him and I’ll_ —”

 _She blinks, has the strangest sense of vertigo, and suddenly they’re alone, somewhere otherworldly, filled with magic and mist and mangrove trees. He’s holding her hand at least, laughing about something as they wander, telling her stories to pass the time_ — _stories she doesn’t know, which makes her heart ache strangely._

 _She catches a glimpse of a figure in the fog_ — _a man with the head of a raven_ — _and she doesn’t know why they need to speak with him, just that they_ do _…_

_And the marsh sucks them under before they can reach him, and just before the water fills her ears, all she can hear is Julian screaming for her._

_The world shifts, one last time, and she’s standing in the middle of a rowdy crowd. It takes her a moment to figure out where she is, disoriented, until her eyes land on what’s standing in the middle of the crowd._

_The gallows._

_Her boyfriend is standing on the wooden platform, arms thrown out from his sides, grinning wickedly in a way she’s never really seen him grin before, apparently having just finished some kind of speech. The mob cheers, and Nox finds herself getting jostled as people struggle to get closer, some sort of sick fascination making them rabid for…_

_Julian finds her eyes in the crowd, as the executioner slips the rope over his head._

_He doesn’t look away._

_Her breath comes faster and faster, heart picking up speed, and she wants to run to him, to stop this,_ please, I love him, he’s done nothing! _But her limbs refuse to cooperate, even as she screams at herself to move, to save him, and it feels almost like the ground itself is about to swallow her whole as he holds her gaze, steady and resolute._

 _She can feel the tears on her cheeks, the knot in her throat so tight it feels like she's got a noose, too, and the world slows for a beat, and then_ —

_The executioner pulls the lever and the rope goes taut._

 

* * *

 

“—ox! Nox! NOX!”

She sucks in a sharp, painful breath, back arching as her eyes snap open. It takes her a moment to reorient herself, and for a moment all she can see is _red, so much red_ —

And then a familiar, cool hand is on her cheek, and her eyes land on Julian’s worried face…

...and the dam breaks, just as he breathes, “Darling… what _happened_? You were screaming.”

The world blurs, and the words tumble out of her, “Ilya, you—you, you’re alive, _you’re alive_ —”

Julian’s face crumbles as she reaches for him, arms around his shoulders as she pulls him down on top of her, sobbing into his t-shirt as she clutches desperately at his back. He curls around her as best he can without crushing her, and she can feel his confusion, but she doesn’t _care_ because he’s _here_ and he’s _fine_ and he’s _hers_ and nothing is ever going to take him away _again_ and—

“Nox, darling, _darling_ ,” he murmurs, rocking her a little from the awkward position she’s got him in. She’s babbling, something about _wouldn’t let me help_ and  _couldn't save you_ mixed with just his name over and over again as she trembles in his arms. It had felt so _real_. “I’m here, sweetheart, I’m right here. I’ve got you. It’s alright, you’re alright.”

She coughs into his shoulder, trying to control herself, but it doesn’t work after a few seconds, as she just cries harder as he shifts to be more comfortable.

“It was a dream,” he says gently. “Just a bad dream, my love, that’s all. Deep breaths, come on.”

Nox is trying, she is, but every time she starts to calm down, she sees that damn _rope_ and—

“Nox, my dear, you’re hyperventilating,” he says, as calmly as she’s ever heard him on site like this. “You need to breathe. Everything is alright. We’re safe. I’ve got you.” Her arms tighten around him at that, and he burrows his face into the crook of her neck, holding her tighter, too. “ _I’ve got you_. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. You can relax.”

He continues to murmur to her softly— _I’m here, it’s alright, I’ve got you_ —until her breathing finally begins to calm, and she relaxes beneath him. He still doesn’t loosen his grip, even as she finally manages to quiet down.

“...I’m sorry.”

It’s nothing more than a flat mumble into his shoulder, hoarse and rough with tears, but it’s all she can think to say.

Julian laughs, and she can feel it in his chest as he asks, “What have you got to be sorry for? Having a bad dream?”

Her eyes sting, and she chuckles a little as he pulls back to look down at her, reaching up to wipe tenderly at her wet cheeks. “For scaring you,” she manages after a beat, breath hitching as her shaky hold on self control threatens to break again.

He shakes his head immediately, leaning in to kiss her forehead firmly. “You didn’t have a night terror on purpose, darling. You don’t need to apologize for that.”

Her breath hitches as she sucks in her first deep breath since she’d started crying. Her head throbs, and she’s physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted as she reaches up to run a hand through her hair. Laughing humorlessly, she grins up at him a little as she groans, “ _Fuck_ this house.”

“Do you want to go back to the hotel?”

“I want to leave this place and never ever come back.”

Julian laughs, finally pulling away to sit up all the way, nodding. “I couldn’t agree more, darling. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapters nox had a nightmare about were Too Painful to replay so sorry for paraphrasing orz (this is the first of... many recurring nightmares she has about this because you can't Unsee something like that)
> 
> also yeah they investigated vesuvia's palace bite me


	25. Dance

Sometimes Julian is so good to her that she feels like she’s dreaming.

They’re meant to be filming today, for their side channel that he’d originally started out of boredom that has since become A Thing. He’d been feeling a little under the weather, a little off center, so she wanted to do something nice for him. Letting him lounge around in his favorite lazy clothes with a glass of their best wine as she cooks him one of his favorite meals felt like the least she could do.

Besides, people usually enjoyed watching them  _be_ —watching them exist outside of the office and outside of the paranormal. She wants to say it’s confusing, that people like watching them do everyday things, but…

She’s barely halfway through chopping the vegetables for the sauce when Julian seems to get bored of filming, turning on his romantic playlist and sidling up behind her with a contented sigh, wrapping his arms around her and pressing close. As they sway to the music, he starts to trail a line of kisses to her neck, and she grins to herself, biting at her lower lip.

“Ilya?” she murmurs, tilting her head as he moves up to press a few slow, insistent kisses to the hollow beneath her ear.

“Mmm?”

“I thought you weren’t feeling well?”

Nox can feel him shrug around her, and she lets him pull her hand away from the food, watching as he raises her palm to his lips and kisses her some more. As he trails his kisses towards her wrist, he opens his eyes to give her a mischievous look, smiling into her skin. She smiles back at him, leaning back against his chest as he nuzzles his face into her hand, eyes drifting shut in what she’d almost describe as bliss.

“Have I told you how much I love you today?” he mumbles, and his voice is a low, soothing murmur in his chest.

She laughs a little, turning towards him a little more as she says, “I think you’ve only said  _I love you_ three times today.”

“Oh, well, I’m behind, then, aren’t I?”

They both laugh as he ducks his head to kiss her gently on the lips, humming contentedly. She turns in his arms when he goes to pull away, pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss him again. He laughs breathily into her kiss, leaning into it with a quiet little hum. Her free hand trails up his chest after a moment of this, sliding into the soft curls at the nape of his neck as he holds her other hand close to his heart.

“This still feels like a dream,” he confesses, voice barely above a whisper as he rests his forehead against hers.

Nox can’t fight back her grin as she nods her agreement, eyes fluttering open just to watch him smile. “If you had told me that falling in love would be like  _this_ , that being with  _you_  would feel  _this good_   _all the time_ …”

He huffs out another laugh, shaking his head as he starts to move to the music a little more. “I wouldn’t have believed it,” he says simply, stepping back and then reeling her back in. “I thought I would’ve messed this up by now. Done something to sabotage this feeling. Ruined it to the point that we couldn’t even be friends anymore.”

She shakes her head, amazed that he could even think that. Every day, he manages to surprise her somehow. He’s always doing something to show her that he loves her—with affectionate touches or presents or sweet words.

Or dancing.

As they continue to sway, she sighs, pulling him closer until they’ve both got their faces buried in each others shoulders, as he cradles her hand to his heart.

“I was so scared,” she breathes after a moment, “of myself when I realized that I had feelings for you. When I finally admitted it to myself because I was in tears over the thought of losing you and—and I stayed a little scared, for a little while. My last relationship ended so  _badly_ , that I was terrified of… of that happening with you.”

She sniffles as he moves to rest his forehead against her temple, still swaying to the music.

“Your friendship has been—so important to me, all these years. You know how bad I was when we first met.”

“How bad both of us were,” he interrupts softly, and his arm tightens around her waist. “I love all my friends dearly, but you… you were different.”

“Yeah,” she laughs, and her voice breaks a little. “But you’ve been so good to me, Ilya. It’s like an extremely unrealistic romance novel come to life, every day I’m with you. You’re always outdoing yourself, making me feel loved, and I’m honestly trying so hard to keep up. I’m not sure I always manage—”

Julian actually laughs at that, spinning them around and chuckling as he says, “You can’t be  _serious_. You are so damn sweet, Nox. You’ve always been so kind to me, always showing me a way forward even when I couldn’t see one.” He presses his forehead against hers, nuzzling his nose against hers. “You’ve been…  _this_ has been…”

He can’t seem to find the words, pulling back to look at her face, gaze darting around her features, lingering on her lips. After a moment, he leans in and kisses her slowly, softly, sighing into her mouth like he’s just come home from a long day at work. He kisses her, over and over again, and she loves him so much she can’t quite stop the quiet little sound that’s pulled from her throat as he pulls her closer.

He breaks away as another song starts up, both of them sighing a little shakily as he presses another kiss to her forehead. They start to dance a little more properly, his hand running up and down her back slowly as she slides her hand up his upper arm. She curls her hand around his shoulder as she buries her face in his shirt, and she can feel more than hear him humming along to the music as they slowly spin on the spot.

She’s not sure how long they continue like that, before he laughs, and twirls her a few times, guiding them around their tiny little kitchen while they both giggle.

They dance until a commercial starts, and then they dance a little more afterwards. They dance until Julian kisses her again, deeper and more insistent, until his stomach loudly voices its complaints about how long it’s been since they started dinner.

He snorts, both of them laughing into the kiss, and she glances over her shoulder at the food.

“If we keep this up, none of that footage is going to be internet worthy,” she murmurs, even as he leans in to kiss her again.

“People watch to see how in love we are, anyway,” he says with a shrug. “I haven’t eaten since this morning, though, so—”

Nox gasps, poking him in the ribs and watching him dance out of reach, laughing because it tickled. “ _Ilya!_ All you had was toast!”

“Yeah, I’m feeling a little lightheaded.”

“Sit down and let me finish cooking for you, you big, stubborn goofball.”

He laughs, ducking in to steal one more kiss. “As you wish, my love.”

 

* * *

 

They didn’t often get to go out quite like this anymore.

She’d never been one to frequent the club scene, but she’d always rather enjoyed it, especially when she was out with friends. Bars with low lighting and pounding bass always got the blood pumping, but this was even better. It wasn’t quite like any club she’d been to since she moved to LA, and she’s not sure how her boyfriend found it, but it’s a rather nice mix between a dance club and a sleazy bar.

They haven’t really gotten to dance like this in a while, either.

Their classes they’d taken had been ballroom and swing and things like that, and the last time they’d been out dancing like  _this_ , well—they hadn’t been together then. There hadn’t been any of  _this_.

So it feels good, to indulge in a little dirty dancing in a sea of strangers, alcohol making her lips tingly as she reels her boyfriend in by the belt loops, grinning playfully at the heated look in his eyes. This type of dancing is less choreography and more  _how much grinding can you get away with before you need to go home and take care of it_ , and sometimes she forgets a little how well he can move. It has her hypnotized a little bit, as she drags a hand down his torso, feeling his hips  _move_ , watching with hungry eyes as he grins and tips his head back just for a moment, losing himself in the music.

When he raises his head again as the song changes, he’s got a twinkle in his eye that she recognizes, and she only has barely a moment to prepare herself before he’s spun her away from him sharply, catching her hand and spinning her back into his arms just as fast. Whatever’s playing is something like a tango, but somehow more mainstream at the same time, and she rather likes it as he bends close, panting and laughing, one large hand firm on her lower back, and she can taste the vodka on his breath as they fall into step with practiced ease.

Nox rather loves the way they move together, like two parts of one whole, easy as breathing. She can feel it in his muscles, which way he’s going to move, can read him like an open book, and it makes for an exhilarating time every time. When he pulls her close, she can feel every inch of him pressed against her, and her hands wander a little when they can, addicted to the shape of him, watching the excited flush on his face deepen with every touch.

At one point, just when her touch has drifted a little too low for a second time, he nearly sweeps her leg out from under her, making her stumble and giving her no choice but to cling to him as he dips her, bending his head and pressing a wet kiss to the base of her throat. The song draws out the tension for a breathtaking moment, leaving her suspended in his arms, before continuing on, and Julian spins her back onto her feet to the beat.

She tilts her head at him as she regains her footing, falling back into step, and he just winks cheekily, smirking with one thick eyebrow quirked as he leads her around the dance floor. He’s feeling bold tonight, confident in how he looks and how much she wants him as close as he can be, and it’s arguably one of the sexiest things she’s ever seen.

They get a little more fancy with it than they necessarily need to, throwing in some kicks and quick steps just to show off, laughing when they spin again. This is nothing like they learned in class, but they’ve always been quick learners haven’t they? Especially Julian, who had always been so incredibly intelligent, picking up things at the drop of a hat without much apparent effort on his part. His mind had been one of the first things that had attracted her to him, after all—aside from those broad shoulders and that beautiful nose.

And,  _well_ … everything else about him, really. He’d become her best friend so fast for a reason.

There’s a crowd gathered now, Nox only just notices when the song hits another moment of tension and she decides to hike her leg up around his hip, and she’s met with a chorus of gasps as Julian just runs his hand appreciatively down her thigh. There’s a new sort of energy sparking between them now, intimate and electric, as he leans in close just to brush his lips against hers teasingly—before he twirls away again, following the rhythm of the music.

He’s laughing when they return to whirling around the dance floor, only for another minute or two as the song comes to a close. In true, dramatic Scorpio/Pisces power couple fashion, Nox lets him guide her into another dip, with her leg hiked up around his hip again, letting her head fall back and trusting him to keep her up. She can feel his breath on her skin as he brushes another kiss to the hollow at the base of her throat, hot and humid, as they stay like that for a few delicious moments.

The rest of the club erupts into applause and cheers, as Nox bursts into laughter and Julian straightens them back up, grinning as she pulls him in for a kiss.

The music goes back to the pounding bass and the crowd falls back into the background as he kisses her back, panting into her mouth until—

“You wanna get out of here?” he gasps, pulling just far enough away that he can meet her eyes.

Nox bites at her lower lip as she grins, heat washing over her already hot skin as she nods excitedly. “Take me home and get me out of this dress.”

He laughs, and gives her one last searing kiss.

“If you  _insist._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all mass effect fans remember the dance scene in the citadel dlc with garrus? :3c
> 
> also i wrote two versions of this on accident and couldn't decide which i liked better so take both


	26. Time

Julian really, honestly hadn’t been ready to meet Ravan Pendragon, that very first time, barely two months into his new relationship with Nox.

He’d met the man once before, over a video call, but that just wasn’t the same as having those deep, dark red eyes right in front of his face. Nox’s father was a few inches shorter than Julian was, but it hadn’t felt that way when Julian showed up for Nox’s birthday dinner and _he_ had answered the door instead. Julian had stammered, and blushed, and looked wide-eyed to his girlfriend for help only to have her just smile and tilt her head.

Julian had never met anyone’s parents as _The Boyfriend_ before, and there was just something extra terrifying about Nox’s father. Not that Julian hadn’t met his fair share of celebrities on accident while living in LA, but _Ravan Pendragon_ was a _big deal_. Hell, Julian had been buying his dress shirts for years now, and to have him standing there in Nox’s tiny little kitchen…

Nox had spent the entire evening curled up against her father’s side, keeping the conversation going whenever she saw Julian starting to freak out a little—and it hadn't actually been so bad, after a while. He could tell Nox had missed him, and Ravan was much more lively and charming than he’d been expecting. The man practically oozed charisma and warmth.

Nox must’ve gotten her magnetic personality from him.

It’s been a year now, since then. Right down to the day, and though Julian is excited to have surprised Nox with her dad for her birthday (the look on her face when she’d looked up from her laptop had been beautiful), he is vaguely worried about what Ravan might have to say to him after—after Paris.

He’s not stupid. He knows everyone had been expecting a proposal, especially since he’d definitely _meant_ to propose then. He’s not sure how Ravan feels about him dropping the ball like that, though he can feel the curious looks he keeps giving them throughout the night.

There’s a calculating look in his eye when Nox curls up beside him for the movie, as Ravan rests his chin on his palm and flicks his gaze between the two of them—lingering on the way Nox practically melded herself to his side, on his arm around her shoulders. Julian can feel him trying to piece it together, why Nox isn’t wearing the ring Ravan had helped him get made several months ago now.

It’s really no wonder that, by the time he and Nox retire to bed, Julian knows without a doubt he will not be getting a wink of sleep tonight, too worried about what Ravan could possibly think of him to be able to rest. His thoughts and worries keep buzzing around his mind like a swarm of angry bees, running in a constant loop of _He hates me, he thinks she’s making a mistake, he regrets ever helping me at all_ —

He’s not sure how long he’s been lying there, working himself into a panic as Nox sleeps blissfully unaware beside him, when he finally has to get up because he just can’t take it anymore.

Maybe a nightcap will help ease his nerves.

 

* * *

 

It takes him a moment of trying to be quiet, grimacing as he rummages through their cabinets, mouthing curse words every time a glass _clinks_ a little too loud, to realize that their pullout couch is empty, the blankets tossed to the side carelessly. Kala’s asleep in the middle of the bed, but Ravan is nowhere to be seen, until—

Julian’s eyes catch on movement just outside of the window, and he realizes that Ravan’s sitting on the balcony, watching the city lights down below.

He thinks about going back to bed for a long, tense moment, hovering in the middle of the kitchen with a glass of scotch in his hand. His instincts are telling him to hide, that he doesn’t want to hear what Ravan has to say. It’s not his business why Ravan isn’t sleeping, after all, but…

...but if he wants this to work, if he wants to make this last, he has to get to know her family, too.

And so he gathers up his courage and another glass and pads over to the sliding glass door, taking one last deep, steadying breath before he pulls it open and pokes his head around the door.

Ravan doesn’t look particularly surprised to see him awake, though Julian does find it rather odd to see him so undressed—gone are the expensive dress shirts and suits, all that’s left is a t-shirt and sweats, long, greying hair pulled back into a messy bun at the nape of his neck. Ravan smiles when Julian waves with the hand he’s holding the bottle of scotch with.

“I was hoping you’d get back up after she fell asleep,” Ravan says, shifting in his seat and gesturing to the other chair beside him. “Come and sit.”

Julian sniffs, and his voice is a little shaky as he steps out into the cool November air, padding over to set the glasses on the table. “I got up for a nightcap and—well, I thought I’d try to be a good host and offer you one as well.”

Ravan laughs warmly, nodding. “I’d love one, thank you.”

“I’m afraid it’s not the good stuff,” Julian says as he pours them both a drink, wrinkling his nose. “We’re trying to save money.”

Ravan snorts as he grabs the glass, bringing it to his lips and taking a sip. “Sometimes the cheap stuff is better, anyway,” he murmurs into the cup, eyes twinkling as Julian just smiles politely.

They fall into comfortable silence for a few minutes, as they both nurse their drinks, and Julian realizes that he hasn’t actually gotten to sit like this in a while. He and Nox have been so busy lately, with all the holidays coming up and—everything going on at work.

This is… nice.

“I haven’t gotten to look at Los Angeles like this in a while,” Ravan says softly after a moment. When Julian looks over at him, he’s staring out over the city. “It’s been a spell since I really had time to just sit and breathe. Usually when I’m here, there’s a premiere or a show or a board meeting or—so many things, that I don’t have time to just sit and enjoy being here.”

“You like LA?” Julian asks quietly.

Ravan smiles, tilting his head thoughtfully. “I do. It’s—a city full of dreamers. Hectic and crazy and riddled with all sorts of drama, but it’s remained one of my favorites. Or maybe it’s just because I met Nox’s mother here.”

Julian perks up a little at the mention of Ravan’s late wife. Nox hadn’t ever mentioned her much, given that she apparently died shortly after she was born. He’s surprised to hear Ravan mention her at all, especially to _him_.

“Did you?”

Ravan’s grin widens, and behind his glasses, Julian can see the remnants of a very deep love glittering in his eyes.

“Ohh, yes. She was a culinary student, you see, working at a restaurant I frequented when I came here looking for work. I’d seen her through the kitchen door for weeks—thought she was just the prettiest thing. One night I caught her on her dinner break, and I did my best not to be creepy when I walked up to her and said, ‘ _Excuse me, Miss, but I’ve just moved here from New York and I just have to tell you that your food has kept me going these past few months.’_ We went out for drinks that same night and… well, the connection was undeniable.”

Julian smiles, as Ravan sighs softly, rubbing at his beard, lost in thought. Fidgeting a little as he finishes off the rest of his drink, Julian clears his throat and says, “Nox hasn’t ever really talked about her mother much.”

“She wouldn’t,” Ravan says quietly, shrugging. “I told her about her as much as I could, but she doesn’t remember. She was barely a month old when she died.” He pauses, smiling a little. “She got Yuna’s talent for cooking the best damn Korean barbecue outside of Korea, though. And her temper.”

Julian just hums, unsure of what to say. Part of him wants to open up a little more, but he’s not sure that would accomplish anything but making him look… stupid, or something.

After a moment, Ravan inhales sharply and asks, “I know I asked at dinner, but—well, I really wanted to ask _you_ more than I wanted to ask her. How was your trip?”

Julian laughs uncomfortably, grimacing and rubbing at the back of his neck. “Ahh, um… I was hoping you _wouldn’t_ ask that, actually.”

Ravan just chuckles, shaking his head. “I’m not upset, if that’s what you’re expecting.”

“You’re not?”

“Of course not. I know it’s scary, and, you know, it took me three tries to propose to Nox’s mother.”

Julian’s actually surprised by that, raising his eyebrows and looking away from the city lights to meet Ravan’s gaze. “Really? _You_?”

“I may be full of confidence now, but asking someone to marry you—you want to get it right, you know? If the moment isn’t right, it just… you want to give her a good story, right? Something she’ll get teary eyed about when she tells all her friends how it happened.”

It’s not so much a wave of relief that washes over Julian as it is a loosening of the knot in his gut, and he shifts in his seat, leaning forward and nodding fiercely. “ _E_ _xactly_. God, everyone’s been giving me such dirty looks since we got back from Paris, but it just—didn’t _feel_ right. It wasn’t good enough. And, I, well… I don’t know.” He slumps in his seat, running a hand through his hair. “I think part of me—doesn’t want to tie her down. I don’t want to make her suffer through a lifetime by my side when she could have anyone she wants, you know?”

His admission is met with dead silence.

Julian cringes, squeezing his eyes shut as the moment drags on, rubbing roughly at his eyes as he tries to backpedal. “I—I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

“—she loves you so much.”

It’s barely a whisper, and Julian bites his lip as he looks over to find Ravan smiling at him softly, chin resting in his palm.

“She really does. So much,” he says simply. “I’ve never seen her so enraptured with anyone else in her entire life. Not one. In fact, I’d been _waiting_ for her to tell me that you two were together, since that very first year she moved out here. She’s just _so_ _stubborn_ —I had to help talk her into it, before you took that trip to Ireland last year.”

Julian blinks. Once, twice, and then—

“—wait, _what_? You…?”

“She was so worried about labels and what other people would think,” Ravan says, reaching for the bottle of scotch to pour them both a new glass. “But you make her so happy, I told her _who cares_ about your labels? Who cares what anyone else thinks of you? You’re crying because you’re scared of the very _idea_ that he’d find someone else—just _let it happen_. Let yourself be in love. Because the two of you… I know you’ve only been together officially for barely more than a year, but you—all these years, you've been there for each other. Honestly, it was always going to be you two, in the end. I believe that with my whole heart.”

There’s a lump in Julian’s throat, and his eyes are stinging a little as he breathes, “...you really think so?”

“Son, I don’t think I could find someone better suited for her if I made them up myself,” Ravan says firmly.

_...son?_

Julian’s cheeks burn, and he looks away before Ravan can see the tears welling in his eyes. He can’t remember the last time he had a heart-to-heart with a man like this. He’s had his grandmothers and Mazelinka, but—as far as _father_ figures go, there haven’t really been any. It’s…

“I love her so much,” Julian rasps, laughing a little at the roughness of his voice. “Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming, the—the depth of it. I would do anything, _everything_ , for her. She’s my—my _heart_. It feels like everything I’ve ever done, or not done, all of it was leading me here, to her. I feel like part of my purpose in this world is… I’m meant to love her. To be with her. When I’m by her side, no matter where we are, I’m—I’m _home_.”

He sniffles, wiping at his cheeks when a few tears fall, shifting in his seat anxiously.

“And that’s why I need this proposal to be perfect, you know. I need it to show her how much she means to me. I can’t waste anymore time being afraid of—” he laughs, shaking his head. “I don’t even know what I’m afraid of, really. Of getting hurt, maybe? Of her realizing that she’s so much better than me and leaving me behind?”

His breath hitches and he rubs roughly at his face again, groaning softly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be—dumping this on you. I just… I’ve never really had a father figure to teach me how to—do these sorts of things, I guess, so I’m projecting and I—”

“—Julian,” Ravan interrupts gently, and Julian’s breath hitches again as he bites into his lower lip. “As far as I’m concerned, you are already part of my family. I want you to be happy as much as I want her to be happy. I want this to work out for you, because I’ve been able to see for a while just how much she needs you, but it’s obvious now that you really need her, too.”

Julian laughs bitterly, shaking his head. “She doesn’t _need_ me…”

“She does!” Ravan insists. When Julian just scoffs, he says, “Listen to me. You didn’t see her before she moved out here. Before she met you. She was—she was a mess, Julian. It broke my heart to see her so broken, so empty. So _numb_. And when she wasn’t numb she was in so much pain that it just killed me that I couldn’t do anything to help her. After she met you—after she met you, it was… she came back to life. Hell, I’d even say she was _more_ alive than she’d ever been before.”

Julian finally looks over at Ravan again, eyes darting across his handsome features, trying to look for any sign that he didn’t mean the things he was saying.

He finds nothing—nothing but gentle concern.

“You two are meant to face this world together. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

Julian almost breaks right there, but he manages to shove it down, laughing and burying his face in his hands, counting backwards from ten. When his heart doesn’t feel like it’s about to leap out of his throat, he sniffles and says, “Well, now that I’ve thoroughly embarrassed myself…”

Ravan laughs, and Julian relaxes a little more. He doesn’t actually feel all that embarrassed, though he knows he probably should. He feels safe here, like he’s—

—like he’s with family.

“Have you come up with any new ideas for the proposal?” Ravan asks lightly, trying to change the subject a little. To make Julian feel better, no doubt.

Julian smiles, eyes on the city lights down below. “I have, actually. Would you—do you wanna hear what I’ve got in mind?”

“ _Please_.”

 

* * *

 

By the time Nox wakes and finds them on the balcony, they’re both clinging to each other and laughing, trading stories over their drinks.

The sun’s just barely risen when she pokes her head out of the sliding glass door, grinning confusedly at the two of them as they greet her. She’s wearing one of Julian’s old t-shirts as she pads over to them, carding her fingers through Julian’s hair as she bends to press a kiss to his forehead while he wraps an arm around her waist.

“I’m surprised to find you two out here. Were you up all night?”

Ravan laughs, nodding as he leans back in his chair, the picture of ease. “Kind of. We just—got caught up talking.”

“Really? You were talking about good things, I hope?” she asks, looking down at Julian with a twinkle of concern in her eye.

He nods, straining a little to peck her gently on the lips. “Only good things, my love. I think we might have even become friends.”

Nox’s eyebrows raise, and she glances at her father. “Oh?”

“Very good friends,” Ravan agrees, nodding. “You picked a real winner, sweetheart.”

Nox hums, giggling as she presses a kiss to the top of Julian’s head. “More like a winner picked me.”

Julian laughs, burying his blushing face in her shirt as she hugs him closer for a moment. He can feel Ravan’s gaze on the two of them, in love in the early morning light, and he’s grinning softly when Julian finally pulls away again.

“You guys wanna help me make breakfast?” she asks, scratching lightly at Julian’s back. “Then you can both take a nap before we go out for dinner tonight.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ravan says, standing and groaning a little as he stretches his hands over his head and pops his back several times. “Give me a minute to freshen up and get the scotch taste out of my mouth.”

As Ravan disappears into the apartment, Nox turns back to Julian with a surprised look on her face, caressing his cheek gently. Leaning in to kiss him on the tip of his nose, she murmurs, “He didn’t threaten you, did he?”

Julian laughs, shaking his head. “No, darling, nothing like that. He’s actually—made me feel a lot better about some things.”

“Did he?”

“Mhm. You know I love you, don’t you?” he asks, smiling up at her.

She grins, and his stomach flips. “I know, but only as long as you know that I love you, too.”

He laughs, feeling so much lighter than he had the night before as she presses a few kisses to his smiling lips.

“Happy birthday, Nox.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ravan is the best dad in the whole world


	27. Hot Drink

Nox had known, intellectually, that Julian often stayed up all night, working or goofing off.

She’d been prepared for _that_ when he moved in—prepared to nag him and pin him to the bed in order to get him to sleep. And honestly, they slept more when they were around each other anyway, which had at least been half of the reason they used to sleep over at each other’s apartments so frequently.

What she isn’t expecting is, a few days after the move, when she wakes up to find her bed empty, the sheets on his side of the bed cool enough to suggest he’s been gone a while. She rolls over to check the time and groans when her phone tells her it’s half past 3 in the morning. She lies there for another moment, the urge to drift back off to sleep palpable, but then she hears a _clang_ in the kitchen, and sighs to herself.

She better figure out what her boyfriend is doing before he sets the apartment on fire.

She’s not very happy, throwing the blankets off to slide out of bed, dragging her feet as she wanders over to the door and out into the living area. She blinks a few times, trying to clear the blur of sleep from her eyes, because she’s not really sure… she’s seeing… what she’s seeing.

“...Ilya?”

Julian is standing at the sink, hunched over it in a very—Gollum from Lord of the Rings-esque fashion, holding a mug to his lips and looking at her with wide, surprised eyes. The lights are mostly out, save for the one over the sink, and the kitchen smells like if you made coffee, but like—for a machine or something.

Her boyfriend swallows the drink he’d been taking thickly, and then puts on his most charming smile. “Nox! Did I wake you?”

“What are you doing?”

“Uhh, nothing, I was just—thirsty. That’s all.”

She blinks again, gaze running over the rest of the kitchen, eyes landing on the stove and the extra pot that hadn’t been there earlier. “Did you cook something?”

“I, uhhh, sort of? I wanted… coffee…” He leans away as she takes a few steps closer, holding his mug close to his chest.

“What is that? It smells—weird. And why are you drinking coffee at 3:30 in the morning? Did you sleep at all?”

He frowns, almost pouting, as he lets out an offended scoff. “Of course I did.”

Nox raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms as she murmurs, “Uh-huh. Why don’t I believe you?”

Julian shrugs, making a face as he says, “Well, I don’t know, darling. I’d never lie to you.”

She just purses her lips, and he deflates a little.

“I did sleep. For, like, an hour. I promise.”

He sounds so quiet and small that she sighs, nodding in agreement. “Okay, I believe you. What kind of coffee is that, though? It smells funny.”

Julian smiles a little, keeping the mug up high enough that she can’t see into it, even when she starts to press up on her tiptoes. He apparently really doesn’t want her to see into it, because he just steps away when she tries to get closer.

“...why won’t you let me see what’s in the mug?”

He flinches, glancing down into the cup as he says, “Because you’re going to yell at me.”

“When have I ever yelled at you?”

“When you think I’m about to hurt myself.”

She blinks. Once, twice, and then she sighs. “ _Will_ this hurt you?”

He makes a face. “I mean. It’s not _healthy_ , but…”

“Ilya.”

He groans, mumbling unhappily as he lowers the mug and says, “ _Fine_. It’s my special brew. It’s what got me through all of my studying for the MCAT—before I decided to drop out, of course.”

Nox peers curiously into the cup, and then wrinkles her nose, making a noise in the back of her throat as she leans away. “ _Ugh_. You were going to medical school and thought this—toxic sludge was a good idea?”

He shrugs again. “Well… I figured I was young enough to metabolize it, you know? And it wasn’t like I wasn’t downing heinous amounts of liquor with the rest of the premed students anyways.”

“I’m still surprised you didn’t get hooked on drugs, too.”

“Now, I always told Pasha to say no to those, and I wasn’t about to go and break her faith in me like that.”

“Nothing wrong with the alcohol though?”

He laughs, shaking his head. “We’re Russian. Our livers are stronger than most.”

“...that’s fair. Still, this smells like you mixed in diesel fuel. It cannot be good for your heart,” she says dryly, reaching up to place a hand curiously on the center of his chest. The fluttering of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips is fast and hard, and though she might usually have thought it was because she was touching him, she’s pretty sure this is all caffeine. Clicking her tongue at him, she takes the mug before he has a chance to react, dumping the contents down the drain.

Julian gasps, sounding positively scandalized. “ _Hey!”_

“You’re not drinking this anymore,” Nox says, setting the mug aside and pulling on his shirt until she can press a kiss to his pouting lips. “I’ll buy us a Keurig tomorrow.”

“But…”

“Ilya, you keep drinking that stuff and you’re going to have a heart attack by 35, and I’m just not about to let that happen.” She smiles up at him sweetly, as he relaxes a little bit. “Maybe I’ll get my dad to send us some of that good Prakran coffee.”

“The stuff that costs an obscene amount of money to import?”

“Mhm. It’s his favorite.”

He pretends to think about it for a moment, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning down so that she can reach him as she presses a line of sweet kisses to his jaw. Sighing contentedly, he buries his face in her shoulder and mumbles, “Sounds good to me.”

“Good. Now, will you come back to bed?” she asks, pulling away to brush his hair away from his face. “I missed you.”

Julian finally leans in and kisses her, humming quietly. “Sweet talker,” he teases into her lips, and she laughs.

“I sleep better with you by my side,” she informs him, pulling away to look him in the eye. “That’s just the truth.”

He just smiles, pressing another kiss to her forehead. “You’re so cute. I might just melt if I spend anymore time with you.”

“Hm. I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sO CLOSE SO CLOSE


	28. Animal Mashup

One of the true joys of being in a relationship with her best friend is, honestly, that he can still surprise her after all this time. He surprises her every day, with sweet words and soft touches, with little tokens of appreciation and affection. He's always coming up with new things for them to do together, always looking for ways to make her day brighter with some kind of surprise. And she loves all of his surprises, every last one.

Even when that surprise is something a bit—on the _what the hell is happening_ side of the spectrum.

It almost makes her feel bad, because Julian is positively beaming at her from where he’s sitting in his desk chair beside her, but, even though the video he’d wanted her to see is well made, it’s just…

“Ilya, I’m so sorry, but I really don’t want leeches in my apartment.”

He seems to have been expecting that, because he doesn’t deflate or look very put out. He just nods and says, “I understand that, but they’d stay on my desk and you wouldn’t have to touch them ever. And I’d only need to feed them every few weeks, and I obviously wouldn’t make you watch that, so—”

“—okay, you know I love you very much," she interrupts, before he can get going, "but... _why_.”

He blinks at her, chafing his hands anxiously up and down his thighs. “Why?” he repeats, tilting his head.

She blinks right back at him, confused as to what he even _means, this isn't like asking for a gerbil or something—what do you mean 'why?'_  “Why do you need leeches?" she asks after a beat. "Why not—I don’t know, goldfish?”

“Kala will try to eat the goldfish,” Julian says very matter-of-factly, like it was obvious.

Nox almost opens her mouth to ask why Kala wouldn’t try to eat the leeches, but honestly? Her cat absolutely has higher standards than that. She’ll eat any piece of plastic she sees, sure, but things like bugs? Spiders? Anything cats are supposed to kill and eat?

 _No, thanks, Mom_ — _you can take care of that._

She wrinkles her nose after a moment, rubbing uncomfortably at the back of her neck as she casts a sidelong glance at her boyfriend. Julian’s taken up a prayer position, with his hands steepled just below his nose, doing his absolute best impression of a wounded puppy. Her stomach twists uncomfortably as she sighs, looking at the screen again, trying to figure out how to let him down gently.

“Baby, I—I can’t,” she stammers finally, wincing at crestfallen way he sighs. “I’ll have nightmares about them breaking out of their jars to come suck my blood in the middle of the night.”

“They can’t get out of the jars by _themselves…_ ”

“You think my subconscious gives a shit about that?”

He opens his mouth to respond, and then shuts it again, nodding like he expected her to say something like that.

Ohh, this is bad.

“Ilya, I’m sorr—” she tries, but he cuts her off.

“—It’s fine. I understand,” he says flatly, pausing to press a kiss to her forehead as he rises to his feet. She doesn't think he's  _mad_ , but she can see the tension in his shoulders, the stiffness that hadn't been there earlier. “How about I cook tonight? Spaghetti sound good?”

“ _Ilya_ …” she tries again, turning in her seat as he heads for the door. Her stomach twists again as she fights the urge to get up and pull him back in here, to sit him down so they can talk this out because she  _hates_ saying no to him, and  _couldn't we find you something else to get instead?_

He just shrugs, smiling a tight-lipped smile that makes her feel like trash. “It’s okay. I’m fine,” is all he says before he disappears into the other room, leaving her sitting in her chair in the empty bedroom.

This is _terrible_ —and she needs to _fix it_.

 

* * *

 

He calls her for dinner about an hour later, and he doesn’t _sound_ like he’s upset, but she’s still prepared to beg forgiveness as she pads out of the bedroom. She pauses just a moment in the doorway, watching him shift his weight, heart aching with how much she loves him (she's overwhelmed with it for a beat, the feeling in her chest full and intense, and she just loves him so  _much—_ ). She walks right up to him where he’s putting the food on plates after a minute, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing a kiss to the center of his back, feeling the vibrations in his chest as he chuckles quietly.

“Well, _hey_ to you, too,” he laughs, and she smiles a little at how warm his voice sounds. Maybe he wasn't as upset as she'd thought.

“I love you,” she mumbles into his shirt, tightening her grip around his waist.

Julian sighs softly, and she hears the clatter of dishes as he sets the pot back down so that he can spin in her arms, cupping her cheeks in his hands and leaning in to press a sweet kiss to her lips. “I love you, too," he says, grinning into her mouth as he brushes his nose against hers.

“I’m sorry about the leeches.”

He snorts, shaking his head as he pulls to look down at her sweetly, rubbing his thumbs across her cheekbones. “It’s alright, love. I understa—”

“—I have a proposition for you,” she interrupts, unable to wait.

He blinks, eyebrows raised, the ghost of a grin playing on his lips. “Oh? And what’s that?”

Nox smiles hopefully, running her hands up and down his sides (he’s wearing her favorite of his sweatshirts, soft and grey and warm), until she starts to walk her fingers up his chest to give her something else to look at besides his face. “I was just… you know, _thinking,_ since we talked about getting a house…”

“Mhmm?”

“Well, I know you love Kala very much, but you’re a dog person at heart,” she murmurs, looking up at him again. “Once we’ve found a place to move, I’m going to get you a puppy.”

It takes a moment for her words to process, but when they do, Julian’s entire face lights up, and she laughs a little as he runs a hand excitedly through his hair. “Are you—are you _serious_? You’d _really_ let me have a dog?”

She nods, grinning. “Of course, I would! Just, once we have the proper space for a dog to be comfortable and where it wouldn’t have to deal with Kala constantly.”

He laughs, and before she can really prepare herself, he wraps his arms around her, lifting her off her feet briefly as he spins around once. “That’s _fantastic_ , Nox, I—that’s so much better than leeches.” His eyes are bright as he runs a hand through his hair again and sighs, “God, I mean, I was already excited about the idea of us… you know, having a house together, but _now_ …”

Nox laughs, tugging on his shirt to get him to lean down so she can kiss his grinning lips. “Mm. I also have an idea for something to put on your desk.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm. You know those little moss balls Portia got for her apartment when she first moved out?”

His eyes light up with recognition. “Marimo!”

Nox nods, reaching for her boyfriend’s hands idly, tangling her fingers through his as she speaks. “Yeah, they have about the same sort of care routine as a leech, are probably _easier_ to take care of, _and_ I won’t have nightmares about them. They can be desk buddies for us both.”

Julian laughs, leaning down to press his forehead to hers affectionately. “I love it.” He kisses her one more time, and then pulls away to reach for their plates as he says, “Let’s eat before this gets cold, now, hm?”

Nox hums, and they make their way over to their little kitchen table. She nudges his foot with hers under the table as they dig in, and he winks at her as he nudges her back.

She still kind of feels bad for letting him down, but he seems in a much better mood, at least. And, well, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t excited to have a few of those little marimos for their desks...

 

“Hey, Ilya. You know something else?”

“What?”

“I thought of this joke while I was sitting in the bedroom trying to think of how to make you feel better, okay. So—just saying, but if you wanted something to suck on you, all you had to do was ask. You don’t need leeches for _that_.”

“(wheeze)”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 50k,,, we hit 50k with this chaPTER we dID IT


	29. Ghost/Spirit

“Do you see ghosts all the time?” Julian asks after a moment of silence.

He’s trying to distract himself from the sense of dread that had settled over him the second they entered this room, but he’s not sure it’s going to work as his girlfriend just looks up at him curiously. Eyes caught on a shadow that appears to be moving in the corner of the room, he clears his throat and tries again.

“I know you said you can see them when we’re investigating but—I don’t know. Do you see them everywhere?”

Nox laughs a little, shaking her head. She lets her gaze drift around the dark room as she says, “No. I’m not very sensitive to spirits. Usually, unless they’re particularly strong and want to be seen, I don’t really notice them.”

“But you can see them when we investigate?”

“Because I’m looking for them?”

“Ah,” he says uncomfortably, shifting in his seat, crossing his arms a little tighter. “Right. That makes sense.”

Nox smiles a little, tilting her head at him as she slumps a little further down in her seat. “Any reason this is just coming up now?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, it’s only the fourth season of this. Why are you only just asking this now, hmm?” she asks, resting her cheek in her palm. Her eyes glint teasingly in the low light, making his cheeks hot even though he knows she's not trying to make him feel bad or stupid.

Clearing his throat a little, he blinks a few times, trying to remember if he ever had asked her something like that before off camera, but… “I don’t know. I guess I never thought about it.”

Nox giggles warmly, and even though it's dark, he can tell she's doing that thing where she wrinkles her nose as she grins. After a beat, she asks, “Well, what about you? Have you ever actually seen a ghost? And," she interrupts as he takes a breath, "I _don’t_ mean the times you’ve heard things or thought you saw objects move—like, have you ever seen _a ghost_?”

Julian debates telling her _no, I haven't_ , as he runs a hand through his hair, but that doesn't sit right with him. He's never lied to her (well... outside of the years he spent pretending he _wasn't_ madly in love with her) so he nods, biting at his lip for a moment before he begins to speak. “Once. When I was a kid, when we were still living in that house Pasha told you I thought was haunted.”

“Yeah?”

He hums. “It wasn’t even one of the things where it’s the dead of night and you’ve just woken up and there’s a chance it’s sleep paralysis or something. It was in broad daylight, and I have no other explanation for it.”

“Ohh, broad daylight apparitions are rare,” Nox says, and he can’t _really_ see her face, but he thinks her eyes have lit up a little. She _sounds_ intrigued, in any case.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard," he says with a laugh. "It was late summer, and I was outside, watching Pasha and Kostya while our grandmas were cooking for dinner. They were playing in the backyard and—I told you we owned a bathhouse, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“Mm. Well, there was this unused shed behind the bathhouse that was mostly just falling to rot, because it was just outside of our property and the people who owned it… just stopped caring, I guess. Anyway,” he shakes his head to clear his thoughts a little bit. “Anyway, Pasha and Kostya were playing, and I was reading on the swingset. I don’t remember—what made me look up that way, exactly, just that I had the _strangest_ feeling of being watched and when I looked at the shed…”

He can still almost see that shed, the way it stood, eerie and slowly dying on the edge of the salt flat, untouched by anything but weeds and decay. He'd always found it uncomfortable, but growing up, until that day, he'd just thought it was because it was ugly. He'd been a science student, first and foremost, so even though his grandmothers always  _told_ him ghost stories, he'd never believed them.

Until that moment, anyway.

“There was a man standing there, much too tall and lanky. His head was bent at a strange angle, and his eyes were just—white.”

His girlfriend makes an uncomfortable noise at that, and he grins at her as she frowns at him. “That’s highly unpleasant,” she says quietly, shifting uneasily in her seat.

“Hah, yeah. Yeah, I screamed. No one believed me, but… I dreamt about that guy a lot after that," he murmurs, wrinkling his nose distastefully. He hasn't had one of _those_ nightmares in years, and part of him wonders if he were to go back to Nevivon for a visit, if they'd start up again. "Grandma Lilinka did eventually tell me that the reason that shed was unused was because a man had hanged himself in there, which explains the way his neck was bent, I guess.”

Nox shivers a little, crossing her arms tighter. “Sorry I asked.”

Julian just laughs, shifting to start gathering their things to move on to a different part of the house. This room may feel bad to him, but he doesn't really think they'll get much more out of it. There's still the basement to investigate, after all. “It’s alright," he says dryly, and then he grins again, nudging her playfully. "I didn’t realize I had any stories left that I hadn’t told you.”

She snorts. “Oh, we've definitely not run out of stories yet. Remind me to tell you about the little tiny dragon I tried to convince my dad to let me keep like it was a snake or something.”

“Ohh, you can count on that. That sounds like a delightful story."

"It is," she agrees, and her shoulder brushes his arm as they walk. "And much better than your abandoned shed ghost."

He chuckles and, for just a moment, he wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in to press a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm sure it is."

"Though, a lot of things are better than that, probably."

They both laugh a little more, and as they continue on with their investigation, Nox lets her fingers thread through his just for a minute, squeezing reassuringly as her thumb makes idle little figures against the back of his hand.

If he'd told his 13 year old self that he was going to grow up to be a ghost hunter, he'd have definitely laughed—or at least, asked him what the hell they'd done wrong to end up  _like this_ , but...

Well, with Nox by his side, even though a lot of their job scares him, it's actually kind of fun. He knows he's safe with her, and he loves to spend time with her, and honestly, getting paid to travel with the love of your life?  He can handle a few uncomfortable nights if it means he gets to be with her, because really...

...what could be better than this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tell you what since i hit my word count goal im so fkn tired im ready for october to be octOVER


	30. Crystals

It probably was a bit weird, that he had all of these sketches of rings hidden away in a little sketch pad that he always kept close to him. Maybe not as weird once they’d started dating, but… well, he’s been in love with her for years. A part of him had always hoped, he supposes, that she’d want him back someday, so he hadn’t thought much of his doodles. If she didn’t want him back ever, then maybe he’d be able to use them for someone else, _if_ he found someone else…

Or, at least, maybe he could start up a ring design business on the side of Unsolved or something.

But she _had_ wanted him back, and suddenly all of these ring designs were _possible,_ were something he could _use_ , if he played his cards right.

And he had played his cards _very_ right, because he's endlessly in love with her as their first anniversary approaches, and she seems to be madly in love with him, too, and it's just—time to get the ring made. Because it's time to seal the deal, before she comes to her senses and takes off with someone who is far better for her.

...or just so she knows where he wants this to go. That he’s in this for the long haul, if she’ll allow it. That he wants more, as much as she's willing to give, and that she already has all of him—his entire life, as much as she wants. Everything he has, everything he is.

It's all hers. _He's_ all hers.

He’d ended up taking her father up on his offer to connect him to his private jeweler, after he called him once to explain that he was seriously thinking about marrying her ( _t_ _hat_ had been hard to get out, but Ravan had seemed thrilled) and that he already had plans for the ring. He’d sent over the top contenders, his favorite sketches, the ones he thought Nox would really love—

—and Ravan had apparently, at some point, had them all _actually_ _made_.

When Ravan had requested to see Julian while he was going to be in Los Angeles for a weekend, it had been a bit surprising. He’d asked if he should bring Nox, but Ravan had told him no, because they had _manly_ things to discuss. He'd catch her next time he was in town, but  _this_ time he just wanted to see his "future son-in-law."

Julian was pretty sure Ravan had heard the thickness of his voice, even though he'd tried desperately to clear his throat and cough away the emotion before he caught on.

Whatever the case, while he'd been hesitantly excited about getting to sit down with her father some more, he certainly hadn’t expected to be presented with 5 nearly finished engagement rings, all of which were even more beautiful than he’d ever expected.

“I… don’t even know what to _say_ ,” Julian had gasped, pulling one of the rings from the velvet and holding it up to the light. The gems glittered with the tiniest movement, radiant even in the lighting of the restaurant.

“I know you wanted to pay for the ring yourself,” Ravan said, tilting his head and smiling, “so all of these are within the budget you said you had.”

Julian had gaped disbelievingly, shaking his head. “No, they’re not. There’s no way.”

“For you, they are. Though, I had a suggestion for the stone in the middle,” he said, laughing and pulling on a chain around his neck to show Julian the ring he wore as a necklace. “This is her mother’s ring. The stone in the middle glows slightly when touched with magic. I think it would be a nice little thing for you to use the same sort of crystal in hers.”

And, despite the price gap that Ravan absolutely refused to let him close, he’d agreed. Because Nox deserved a ring like that, something as unique and beautiful and full of light as she is herself.

And he wants her to feel good wearing it, to want to show it off. He wants it to be the envy of the office, for people to look at her ring and think,  _damn, someone loves her._ He wants this to be something she's proud of, wants her to be proud of him, of being with him. He wants her to feel how much he loves her every time she catches a glimpse of it, every time someone compliments it.

He wants this next step in their relationship to make her happy.

 

They’re leaving for Paris in the morning, and he's fraught with nerves, which are unfortunately keeping him awake as he sits in the living room and looks at the ring in the moonlight. It’s glowing a light, pinkish red color in the dark, the stone reacting to the little warming spell his girlfriend had used on his hands earlier. ( _She'd reached for them out of habit, and when his skin had been icy against her warm palms, she'd brought his hands to her lips, exhaling hot air that sent heat prickling all the way up his arms. She'd laughed when he'd groaned a little, slumping forward to bury his face in the crook of her neck._ ) The little stones around it glow softly as well, sparkling as he watches, and for a moment, his chest feels so light he feels like he might explode.

This is the right ring. He has no doubt about that. He’s sure she’s going to love it. 

He just can’t wait to see her face—and he can’t wait to be hers.

Forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so TIRED


	31. Friend

Nox is more nervous for this trip than she has been for anything else in a very long time.

She knows there’s nothing really to be afraid of—she’s met some of his family already, and that had gone very well. There had been no arguing, no cold shoulders, no reason for her to be worried that anyone might object to their relationship. Not that she’d expected there would be, necessarily, because while she and Julian were so very close, she’d also been very close with Portia for years as well.

And surely that had to count for something, right?

Still, even with the churning anxiety in her gut, and the fact that she hadn’t slept a wink all night, she’s managing to keep cool enough that Julian seems more outwardly fraught with nerves than she does. He keeps dropping things, frantically checking and rechecking the bags and his own pockets—for what, exactly, she’s not really sure. He’s just dropped his fourth item in the past twenty minutes when she finally decides enough is enough and steps in.

Smiling as she gently pushes his hands away, she says, “Why don’t you go ahead and start putting the big bags in the car? I’ll finish packing our carry-ons.”

For some reason, he doesn’t seem to like that suggestion. “No, I’m fine, really—”

Nox just waves his hands away as he tries to reach for the bag again, and they both laugh a little as she bumps her hip into his to move him out of the way. “Go put the bags in the car like the big, strong man you are. I'll get this.”

He snorts. “I’m fairly positive you’re stronger than me,” he says lightly.

She actually laughs at that, full and warm, and the little knot of anxiety in her chest eases a little. “Be that as it may—just _go_. We don’t want to be late.”

“Okay, but don’t go rifling through my carry-on, alright?" Julian says as he starts to move one of the bags. "I’ve—got one of your presents in there.”

Nox blinks, looking away from him and down to the bag in her hands. Curiosity taps her on the shoulder, and she has an urge to do just what he asked her not to for half a heartbeat, before she shakes her head and smiles. “I’ll be careful not to snoop.”

He stops what he's doing completely to look her dead in the eye.

“I mean it.”

“I believe you!" she laughs. When he just frowns a little more at her, she rolls her eyes a little. "I promise I won’t go looking for my present.” And then, just to be annoying, she turns to face him completely, winking and raising three fingers as she says, “Scout’s honor.”

Julian pauses in the doorway with the biggest bag, tilting his head at her confusedly. “You weren’t a girl scout, were you?”

She giggles. “No, but you know I wouldn’t break a promise to you, Ilya.”

He smiles a little and nods. “I know, I know, I just—really want that present to be a surprise.”

“I won’t look!”

Julian just laughs as he disappears down the hallway, leaving Nox alone with the bags for the moment. They’d taken Kala to the vet yesterday, where she’d be staying until after they got home from their trip, and the apartment feels surprisingly empty without her. Not that she’d minded being able to make out with her boyfriend without a whiny cat audience, but she was already missing her baby.

Just a little bit, though.

 

She’s zipping up the last of the bags when their apartment door opens with more gusto than Julian has had in a while, and Nox has barely a moment to brace herself before someone has thrown their arms around her shoulders, squeezing and bouncing a little with excitement. Nox laughs, wrapping her arms around her friend and burying her face in Portia’s mess of soft red hair spilling across her shoulders.

“Nox!!”

“Pasha, _oof_ —”

Portia is practically vibrating with excitement as she pulls away, reaching up to cup Nox’s cheeks as she presses a big, fervent kiss to her forehead. “How are you?? I feel like it’s been forever since we saw each other. Are you excited? I’m excited!”

Julian’s dry voice makes them both turn, as he comes back for the rest of the bags. “Hey, Nox, just so you know, Pasha’s here.”

Nox laughs. “Yes, I found her.” Portia slides her touch down her arms to Nox’s hands, squeezing excitedly and swinging them idly between them, even as Nox frowns at her a little. “Do we… have the same flight?”

Portia blinks, tilting her head. “Wha—didn’t Ilya tell you? We’re all going together!”

“Oh!”

When she looks helplessly at her boyfriend, Julian just shrugs closing the distance to wrap his arms around them both and hug them close as they both giggle. “Yes, I thought it would just be easier than Pasha flying down by herself. Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Nox says, muffled, into his sweater. “Pasha’s one of my best friends. And your sister. It makes sense that she’d fly down to visit her own family with us, considering you are also her family.”

“We’re _all_ practically family,” Portia says as she pulls away, and there's something strange glinting in her eye as she meets Nox's gaze. “In fact, we might _really_ —”

“—ALRIGHT, who’s ready to go? Let’s get moving so we can buy some snacks for the plane ride, eh?” Julian interrupts loudly, face almost as red as his hair when Nox glances up at him curiously, a little startled by his outburst.

And with that, he gathers up the last of the bags and starts shooing both girls out the door as he goes. Her boyfriend is acting— _very_ weird today, but as Portia slides her hand into Nox’s as they head out, she writes it off as regular old ‘ _we’re about to meet the family'_  nerves.

Because, there’s nothing else he’d be nervous about, right?

 _Right_.

...right?

 

* * *

 

So focused on everything else is she, that Nox misses the very pointed looks the siblings share on their way to the airport.

Portia in the back seat keeps waggling her eyebrows at Julian every time he glances into the rearview mirror, and if it weren’t for the fact that Nox was sitting beside him, he’d say something about how she needs to _cut it out before you give me away, Pasha!_ He's lucky Nox hasn't accidentally found the ring yet, but if his sister keeps  _acting like this_ then she's liable to guess what's coming before it happens—and he'd like to keep her guessing until the moment he drops to his knees, if he can manage that, thanks very much.

It’s fine, though, because Nox spends most of the ride watching the city pass outside the window as Julian and Portia talk about the trip—things they were looking forward to, things Nox was going to love, what they've been missing since the last time they were home. Everything is fine, and he can tell that Nox's quietness is because she's nervous and not because she's suspicious, but he still makes sure to pull Portia aside after they go through security to hiss, _“If you ruin this for me, I’ll be legally allowed to fight you over it.”_

Portia just laughs, patting his hand on her shoulder just as Nox calls for them from a ways down the terminal, holding her hands out from her side in the universal 'what gives?' gesture. “First of all, _relax_. Second of all, I could kick your ass and you know it.” He opens his mouth to argue, frowning deeply, but she just holds up a hand and says, “And third of all, _you’re_ the one acting weird, not me.”

He rolls his eyes, unable to argue because she's  _kind_ of right, and his sister just winks at him before turning to jog and catch up with his girlfriend. Nox looks at him curiously as he catches back up to them, and he does his best to smile as warmly as he can, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they walk, bending to press a sweet kiss to the top of her head.

They quickly fall back into friendly banter almost immediately, as Portia starts to tell stories about the salt flats and the bathhouse. The girls laugh together as he watches, trailing a little bit behind them so that he can feel around in his bag just to—

—he sighs with relief as his fingers wrap around the little velvet box, stuck inside a pair of gloves at the bottom of the bag.

Everything is fine.

Everything is fine, and by the end of this trip?

By the end of this trip, if everything goes well, he’ll be engaged—and they’ll be ready to start a brand new chapter in their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we did it folks,, its been a hell of a ride but we did it
> 
> will we try again next year? probably not but hEY 50k words in a month is a hell of an accomplishment and i'm taking a vacation from writing until after the new year probably lmao


End file.
